I mean I have always worried a lot, it’s like my defining feature since I was 3. But one of the things I worry about is the future. I’m 39, about to turn 40. I feel like I was born at the just the right age to watch the world go from real to digital.
For a while the internet was amazing and cool. But then around 2010, in just a few short years, smartphones went from “cool novelty tech toy” to “literally everyone has one on them at all times.” And I guess that accelerated what was already happening – things were becoming too easy. Things just got too good, too fast.
Louis CK once put it like this “everything’s amazing, and we’re miserable”. We can “stream” any music ever recorded onto our device, wherever whenever. It’s terrible. How can I choose what song I want to listen to, if I have access to all of them? We can watch any show or movie ever filmed. Endless other content across dozens of different networks, each with more than we could watch in a lifetime. 1 generation ago the TV had 50 channels. (2 generations ago there were like six). Each of which broadcast one thing at a time.
There’s the choice overload aspect of it (the paradox of choice). But it’s bigger than that – there used to be a common wavelength. And it’s not just about watercooler talk re: last night’s episode of Seinfeld. It’s that we all knew the same bands, from the same radio stations. You found out this stranger was really into pearl jam, and… they weren’t entirely a stranger anymore. There was something binding, collectively, about the shared experiences through these limited channels.
On the one hand, it’s easier for people to meet and connect today, in some corner of the internet, over a shared interest that they, personally sought out, which is great. But there used to be more of a middle ground. That guy might also like stone temple pilots, who you never got in to. Or Korn. So no you weren’t exactly friends – I mean, everybody liked Pearl Jam. But that’s kinda my point. Everybody liked MJ. (Jackson OR Jordan – again, kinda my point).
The political side of it isn’t exactly where I’m going with this, but it bears mentioning. The climate of fear, anxiety, and anger in the politics of this country (and around the world?) seem so anchored in the bipartisan-ness of it. There’s the echo chamber issue (see social media doc? hinton clip?), but there’s also the death of this common wavelength. Sub-consciously. Subliminally. You and I might get our news from different places, but we both watched Home Improvement. So we had that going for us.
But if everything is actually amazing, how can we be miserable? Because I think you actually have to do stuff in life. You have to work at things and get a sense of accomplishment from them. You have to get up and go places and be upright. You have to work til you are tired sometimes. You have to stand there for 30 seconds waiting for the elevator, and feel 30 seconds of bored or uneasy or stressed. Instead of pulling your phone out and checking your email.
I worked at a restaurant in high school, in the kitchen and as a food runner. I ended shifts covered in grease, sweaty, exhausted, ache-y. I loved it. I got tipped out in cash – a tiny little manila envelope with maybe $20-50 in it. Best money I ever made.