August 21st, 2017

I was recently at a baseball game and had four relaxing hours to observe the half dozen folks around me. The 60 yr old season ticker holder in front of me had slicked back grey hair, a dark navy blue cap on, gold and blue Rolex, and a Charlie Sheen inspired Hawaiian short sleeve button down on. #swag What proved to be more interesting than his physical appearance was his digital savviness. As he had to hold up the phone close to eyes to properly use it, I found him seamlessly using iMessage, Snap, and Twitter all throughout the nine innings. I was like “damn, good on you for pinching inwards to easily pop open the Snap map.” He'd open up Twitter shortly after a controversial call or big play to get a hot take from several Boston based sports accounts. It was quite fun and smile inducing to see what could be my grandfather taking full advantage of the many digital experiences we have available to us.

It also got me thinking...man, if this is what a current soon-to-be retiree is doing and the precedent for every 15yr old with their own iPhone going forward...we're screwed. I'm screwed if I think I can do good work, take in the world around me, hear myself think, focus on others, and be tied to reality all while having an incredibly addicting, noisy, and distracting 10 icons available on my phone to explore at any impulse. Fortunately I have invested some serious and dedicated inputs to back up words here in the last 18 months.

It's funny how we ascribe values and meaning to potential levels of knowledge/information based on someone's physical belongings. see a large library of books in their apartment → Sally must be well read → Sally must be smart see Monocle and Cereal magazines on coffee table → Grant must have style and an appreciation for great aesthetic see someone wearing nice glasses → unfair but maybe natural impression of sophistication see someone carrying a nice pen and Moleskine → Andrew must be observant and question asker → “thoughtful”

List goes on and on...and we all use physical items (branded or not) to tell true, fake, complete, and incomplete stories about who we are or who we wish we are. Fair and unfair impressions and judgments are made from outsiders.

What strikes me as a current oversight by society (and hopeful development?) is the fact that we can look at our homescreen filled with Snap, Whatsapp, Twitter, FB, FB Messenger, Instagram, Slack/Discord, multiple email apps, iMessage, etc and not feel a twinge of pain or frustration. Or similarly, an unfair but reasonable judgment isn't made when we see a friend or stranger's phone with the same layout of portals to an alternate reality.

I was going to start and end this note with a simple tweet-esque shit post along the lines of...

we will soon come to see and judge a homescreen of social media messaging apps as poorly as we do when we see someone's weekday diet consisting solely of TV dinners

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It is perfectly fine for one to eat a TV dinner as they consume the latest netflix episode. It is perfectly fine for one to explore, share, and chat on an app. It is a bit questionable for one to eat TV dinners every night of the week. It is a bit questionable for one to open said app every time they are in a meeting, line, bathroom, and couch hang. It is a bit unhealthy to think eating TV dinners for every night is a perfectly fine situation. It is a bit unhealthy to think that using all these apps every hour of the day is the normal.

It is dangerous to think everyone has and continue to eat TV dinners while having good longterm physical health.

It is dangerous to think everyone has, can and will use these apps for the end of time while building strong longterm mental healthy.

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