re: #62 ryannon

Sorry, I totally messed up the post. I must have been thinking about something else. :-) Or perhaps it’s the fact that I woke up quite early this morning. Anyway:

I know personally I hate the fact that I can no longer seem to have a meeting or conversation without the other party getting calls, text messages, emails, glancing at their screens at any pause, and so on. Nor does anyone seem to think it wise to turn off these distraction.

I see this all the time on the street: people walking around, apparently talking to themselves (what a boon cell phones have been to the authentically crazy!), texting all the time, interrupting conversations to receive a call, etc. As for me, I tend to avoid people who do this systematically in the context of personal interactions. I’ve also seen instances where it was actually a form of passive-aggressive behavior - a particularly handy way of indulging in it. Professionally, I don’t have to deal with this at all.

Conversely when I’m sat at the beach without a book, I can get bored. Paradise is dull after a couple of days. There is no winning.

Quite honestly, I gave up reading books years ago. I’ve become completely visual (I can watch that ocean for hours - and not like a drooling idiot). The desire for the acquisition of information is satisfied by the Internet. As for the desire to ‘escape’ (s’evader in French), reading no longer provides it. Music videos and TedTalks have become staples of my intellectual input. Perhaps I’ve just found my level of mediocrity, or perhaps I’m on to something - at least for myself.