Comments on: Being offline http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/ the tao that can be blogged is not the eternal tao Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:52:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: RealFake Blog » Blog Archive » Thoreau and the news http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-13647034969908931325 RealFake Blog » Blog Archive » Thoreau and the news Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:11:30 +0000 http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-13647034969908931325 [...] I find this kind of thing comforting when news cycles seem to be heating up, when world events seem to be impossibly dire. And I am occasionally attracted by more contemporary variations of this attitude. [...] [...] I find this kind of thing comforting when news cycles seem to be heating up, when world events seem to be impossibly dire. And I am occasionally attracted by more contemporary variations of this attitude. [...]

]]> By: David Battino http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-20358 David Battino Sat, 28 Oct 2006 03:48:58 +0000 http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-20358 When Eno spoke about getting a collection of silent records, the audience laughed loudly. Clearly music pollution was on their minds. (The other funny moment was when someone asked Eno if he planned to release another vocal album, whereupon he told the sound guy to play <i>Music for Airports.</i> After several minutes of enduring its ooohing and cooing in the background while he was answering other questions, Eno wheeled on the hapless engineer and quipped, "Will you turn that shit off?!") I was then in the midst of interviewing people for my book, <a href="http://www.ArtOfDigitalMusic.com" rel="nofollow"><i>The Art of Digital Music</i></a>, and asked several others to predict if we'd soon be paying for silence. Most of them agreed, though one, a Hollywood talent agent, started screaming at me. He argued that my problem wasn't that there was too much noise out there but that I wasn't filtering it well enough: "My family does not do anything but watch TiVo, which is <i>exactly</i> only the stuff we want. And if you <i>had</i> a TiVo...." I didn't get a chance to tell him that I don't even have a TV. When Eno spoke about getting a collection of silent records, the audience laughed loudly. Clearly music pollution was on their minds. (The other funny moment was when someone asked Eno if he planned to release another vocal album, whereupon he told the sound guy to play Music for Airports. After several minutes of enduring its ooohing and cooing in the background while he was answering other questions, Eno wheeled on the hapless engineer and quipped, “Will you turn that shit off?!”)

I was then in the midst of interviewing people for my book, The Art of Digital Music, and asked several others to predict if we’d soon be paying for silence. Most of them agreed, though one, a Hollywood talent agent, started screaming at me.

He argued that my problem wasn’t that there was too much noise out there but that I wasn’t filtering it well enough: “My family does not do anything but watch TiVo, which is exactly only the stuff we want. And if you had a TiVo….” I didn’t get a chance to tell him that I don’t even have a TV.

]]> By: Ezra http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19633 Ezra Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:58:02 +0000 http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19633 You're right that that's suspicious; I was a little suspicious of how specific he was about things he didn't know, like the re-emergence of the Taliban, which, if he had really caught absolutely no news since 9/11, he would have thought was still in power! I also don't completely buy that people would rather look outward than inward. Quite the contrary, I think people are pretty self-absorbed. But I think he's onto something about the distracting nature of the internet, about substituting a sense of connection for actual communication, about how being connected can actually impair one's thinking. You’re right that that’s suspicious; I was a little suspicious of how specific he was about things he didn’t know, like the re-emergence of the Taliban, which, if he had really caught absolutely no news since 9/11, he would have thought was still in power!

I also don’t completely buy that people would rather look outward than inward. Quite the contrary, I think people are pretty self-absorbed.

But I think he’s onto something about the distracting nature of the internet, about substituting a sense of connection for actual communication, about how being connected can actually impair one’s thinking.

]]> By: Marco http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19407 Marco Sun, 15 Oct 2006 04:46:33 +0000 http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19407 I used to keep CNN or NPR on all the time. There was also a weird period when I listened to a lot of talk radio. Eventually, I realized that all of that information just drowned out whatever came before. As a result, I was knowledgeable about things I had heard recently, but eventually I would forget about it. I still like to listen to NPR on the way to work and I don't completely ignore the news, but I'm a lot more at ease now that I'm not bombarded with it. I get less information now, but I feel like I retain more. I used to keep CNN or NPR on all the time. There was also a weird period when I listened to a lot of talk radio. Eventually, I realized that all of that information just drowned out whatever came before. As a result, I was knowledgeable about things I had heard recently, but eventually I would forget about it.

I still like to listen to NPR on the way to work and I don’t completely ignore the news, but I’m a lot more at ease now that I’m not bombarded with it. I get less information now, but I feel like I retain more.

]]> By: John Cowan http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19340 John Cowan Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:51:15 +0000 http://realfake.org/blog/2006/10/11/being-offline/#comment-19340 I find the date of the Auslander column suspicious. He stopped reading/viewing news four days before 9/11? I doubt it. It's really, really hard to avoid <i>all</i> news. If nothing else, people talk about it, so you pick up a thing or two. I do my best, though. Definitely no TV news, unless something earthshattering has happened; I do read the <i>New York Times</i> now and again. And I've been ignoring the news for a lot more than five years. I find the date of the Auslander column suspicious. He stopped reading/viewing news four days before 9/11? I doubt it. It’s really, really hard to avoid all news. If nothing else, people talk about it, so you pick up a thing or two.

I do my best, though. Definitely no TV news, unless something earthshattering has happened; I do read the New York Times now and again. And I’ve been ignoring the news for a lot more than five years.

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