The answer is not in removing particular mindless vices but in moving toward the learning and creativity of which the author speaks. I see so many people saying "I'm going to quit video games" or TV or internet browsing as if it's going to change their life. And it doesn't. They still spend their time piling rocks in the corner - they just use different rocks. I suppose a big part of it is mindfulness - realising that you're just twiddling your thumbs doing nothing and that later you'll be really glad if instead of watching another episode of The Walking Dead that you spend an hour playing bouzouki. That's what living in the moment means to me, anyway. Aye, gotta believe in a new kind of me... Edit: I wrote that while halfway through the article. I just read the bit at the end - that the internet is where the people are. I'm not convinced one way or the other that internet mediated relationships are innately worse or weaker or whatever than "real" ones - it's a very complicated issue - but I do think that in a way it kind of sucks that the internet is effectively mandatory, especially for young people. If you're not on Facebook, you don't get invited to parties.
Per your edit, I think that the quality of "online" relationships is evolving. I'd like to think that Hubski is a part of this evolution. A while back theadvancedapes wrote a good piece titled Decline of Friendship that is pertinent. As for my feelings on the post, you summed it up perfectly:
I see so many people saying "I'm going to quit video games" or TV or internet browsing as if it's going to change their life. And it doesn't. They still spend their time piling rocks in the corner - they just use different rocks.
-Well said.
See, as a student of anthropology I'm inclined to say that technically there's no such thing as completely "unmediated" reality, so neither "real life" nor digitally-mediated relationships can be considered more "authentic" than the other. Rather, I think there are authenticities; it is possible to have meaningful and honest interaction through the internet just as it is possible to have superficial or frivolous interaction offline - in a lot of ways, they're just too different kettle of fish. Mostly I'm concerned with being reflective about the whole matter. While I don't share kleinbl00's idea that internet mediation leads to social atrophy, I also don't like uncritical, sweeping statements that all digitally-mediated communication is therefore okay and super cool. Sorry if this doesn't make sense; I'm a bit drunk. As for the whole mindful living thing... thenewgreen, may I just say, thanks for recording New Kind of Me. At first I didn't like it, because I had a different idea of living in the moment that I didn't think much of. But now I grok it a lot better, and listening to that song really strikes me somewhere profound. Thanks, man! Now send me your first album already! :P
Thanks, that's a wonderful endorsement! As for the first album, I thought I sent it to you a while ago. Can you re-pm me your address? Thanks again for the shout out.
Aw shucks, it must've gotten lost in the post or something.