Dead on the Web (Future140 Part 2)

Are you ready to die? What about all of those pieces of you left behind on the Internet? Are they a fair representation of who you really are?

Think about it.

Recently I’ve been reflecting on a project I started called Future140. It demands well thought out answers in 140 seconds or less. For my second micro-interview on Future140 I decided to challenge my dad, who happens to be a professor and the most accessible intellectual I know. He’s always taken a liking to the subject of death. He recently has been dabbling in social media and I thought he might have some insight into a question that had been plaguing me.

click to listen –>
“We all die. But now our Internet activity, comments, photos, etc. live on. Do our digital lives matter?”

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Slow Down & Make Tech Meaningful!

It is late.  I woke up thinking about how technology makes things so convenient and how we steadily input more and more of it into our lives.   A certain amount of convenience is nice but when everything is micro-packaged we think it means we should consume more of it.  We eat more fast food because it steals less time from our day that we could be spending with our child.  We “scan” RSS and twitter feeds while sipping on a 40 oz. diet coke.  We get frustrated when there is no wi-fi in a building because we need to check our e-mail, now!  The way we consume is hyper-accelerated.  We get stressed out.  We get sick.

This is not happening everywhere in the world.  This blog hopes to examine how other cultures incorporate technology into their already existent value systems.  I hope that we will learn the value in slowing down.  I already wrote about the “slow family,” which I believe is a good place to begin a more conscious lifestyle with less stress.  The world – out there – will take some time to slow down, but you can begin to become aware of the subtleties, flavors, and joys of taking it a notch down, while at home.

The slow family

The Wood family, December 1970 (Photo credit: Dave Traynor)

“Family” is a powerful word.  It carries much more weight than “community” and certainly more weight than “culture.”

In this blog I explore a concept I call the “slow family”.  This idea stems from the slow movement.

Most, post-modern families have subjective values, undefined roles, and their lifestyles tend to be more concerned with extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation. They celebrate each others materialistic achievements because they matter the most.   Extrinsic  motivation is about fulfilling tangible cravings and rewards.  Intrinsic motivation is more concerned with personal development, demonstrating personality in ways both creative and productive. We all know that young children are highly suggestible.  They are also highly insatiable.