Speaking of that amp—I just blew a tube.

Of course colloquial conversations weren't brilliant in another time.

My point (from experiences in the educational world) is that our most pervasive methods of communicating (short form; uncritical; bolstered by valueless follower numbers, or degrees from paper mills) are reshaping the way we engage with thinking. How people communicated in the past is different; the medium isn't the value, but it shapes routines of expression.

My fear is that we feel we are more informed, or are communicating better, because of our ability to aggregate content, but the quality of educational product (undergraduate work in research and writing; critical thinking and literacy) is abhorrent. I played school as an undergrad and I see a more intense version of playing school each year I'm engaged in higher ed.

I think this is, in part, because of the way we communicate and what we believe (or value) in education; which seems to be yoking the world of work to the world of school; a connection which makes no sense. The proliferation of all sorts of 'degrees' points to the ridiculous nature of modern education.

In essence, I think the ability of the masses to engage so widely, while beautifully open, has created a culture which I don't really think we have a grasp on. And to bring it back to game culture or the winners/losers paradigm, I wonder if our new forms of mass communication (online gaming, social media, 24/hr news, etc.) are obscuring reality and creating a pithier, morally-detached world.

We do seem to be pushing childhood further and further into the future. And by that, I mean the way we institutionally coddle people. But that's just the deceit for attempting to build self-esteem; which isn't a horrible concept, even rooted in fraud.

I think we are greatly underestimating the collective culture's ability to decipher the world. We have unbelievable technology, we are better at solving certain types of problems, but we are developing a culture of 'playing', whether it be school or work or relationships or empathy, that very much associates with gaming; a distancing from reality and the bullshit reinforcement of Darwinian outlooks; that winning is a real thing.

The greatest lie that an older generation tells its young people is that those periods of human development and social change are related at all. Traditional appeals of any kind contain the lie that there is a universal sameness from generation to generation.

My biggest fear (and this is born out of teaching in an undervalued section of the population) is the way we are increasingly unable to communicate despite all the wonderful mediums we have to do so. Twitter/Facebook, et al are predominantly about playing and winning. It fits perfectly with a culture increasingly uncritical; a culture of arbitrary value. We read and write in informational bursts. We react in nearly anonymous barf. We espouse opinions with the preface "tl;dr"; an inherent contradiction. It's a culture of subjectivity; opinions verified by valueless followers or grades. It's the nature of capitalism to require a massive advertising industry. How else would we polish all those turds?

I've been a gamer my whole life. I love games. I loved competitive sports when I was younger as well. Those qualities are still deeply ingrained in my person. Even academic pursuits, which can be wrapped in a high-minded goodness, are tinged in a personal competition. But blaming entertainment for our social woes is silly. We create these systems. We create how to engage (or not) critically with our world.

The "tl;dr" [insert opinion] isn't any different from it is what it is, or it was meant to be, or whatever fatalistic garbage comes from the new religion of laziness and disappointment.

The major problem has never been being lied to, but the constant lying we do to ourselves.

Totally real. I vaguely remember a journalism teacher mentioning a different phrase.

The Painted Bird Kosinski

I'd like to think I'm an 'independent'—because I hate the two parties in this country.

"One Sunday Morning"

Happy New Ears!

'Upgrade & Afterlife' - Gastr Del Sol