This is less a post and more a comment on a post elsewhere …  I was commenting on this article last week and it is still in moderation and can only assume it won’t be approved. It would seem the author doesn’t want other points of view on this.  It’s just as well I kept a copy and so I will comment here on it instead. But before I do, here is the comment policy on the site, Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Media Network blog),  where I spotted it.

Please keep your comments on topic, which means they must have something to do with the subject of the post. Comments must be in English, not your native language. If I cannot understand a comment, for legal reasons I will have to delete it. Don’t worry if your English is not pefect; I will correct any spelling mistakes etc.

Yes it does say “not pefect”. I don’t mean to be pedantic about that (you’ll find plenty of typos here I’m sure and perhaps it is meant to be a joke) but as it seems to be the case that my comment was not ‘understood’,  I will post it here instead and see if anybody understands it. There is only one comment on the article, plus one in subtext from the author / translator Andy Sennit, so it seems like it is a given that this is the wrong decision and that some broadcasters are behind the times and that nobody thinks any different.  The translated article is captured below and I have located the original article in Swedish on Dagensmedia here.

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Now this is just the tip of the iceberg.. the underlying theme herein will be expanded upon over future posts and so this is an introduction of sorts. I think a lot about the direction we are going in with social media et al, or whatever it will be called in the future. The wheel is turning faster and faster and everyday we are seeing more and more innovations to make our virtual lives and communications easier. But there is the rub. Just because it is easier (more convenient) doesn’t necessarily mean it is any more useful, it may just make room for more distraction. Much of what we invest in is worth nothing when something better comes along.

If we are in a global recession, then why and how can we afford to keep buying virtually nothing? We are upgrading and obsoleting technology quicker than ever and piling up rubbish that was once worth substantial amounts (of course it still is to those in the lucrative recycling industries) so we can move on to the latest trend and give ourselves a false sense of belonging. The question is though, do we own our purchases or do they own us?

The Law of Distraction may sound familiar to those of you who have explored the realms of self-improvement on the information-super-highway. I’m putting this out there as a mirror on that and on our internet use (also, wider media consumption) in general. How much of what we consume is useful? How much of it is useful enough to improve our livelihood and advance our career path?  How much of it is distraction? Of course we individually know the answers to these type of questions. We are living the same experience, that of the information age, but we are not all on the same page and that is largely the point. Whether you are an early adopter or a noob, the net has become a part of daily life for a large amount of people and within that there is a sense of pressure that you need to be part of the latest trend or get left behind. But what do we leave behind?
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