We're all story tellers, now.
Its been exactly 1 month since my last post. Its not so much I haven't been thinking, or been too busy, I've just wondered if its worth it to put my thoughts here. I suppose it is, though. At least they are somewhere.
I was camping the past 3 days when I began to think. I began to think about my thinking and I realized all my thoughts and nearly everything interesting that I was experiencing on the trip, quickly was being transformed into little 3 sentence segments that I could easily tell other people.
Suddenly I had realized that all my thoughts were being transcribed in the equivalent of a News Broadcast's sound bites - I was preparing my thoughts for the digital and social world.
For instance, I had just seen the most miraculous cloud formations I have ever seen before with an oncoming rain storm. I was so awe struck I stood, mouth agape, fascinated at what was unraveling before me. Yet more than half of my thoughts were "How will I tell someone about this?" and sadly enough, "How can I make a facebook status update about this?"
It felt disgusting, really. It felt like my mind was more occupied with how to create a simple 3-sentence story rather than actually involving myself in the experience itself! Oh the irony!
Immediately I attempted to stop myself, but realized this was heavily engrained inside of me. That all of my experiences for the past 10 or so years had been mostly contemplations of transcribing my experience to words and sounds. I wasn't actually in the moment, I was in the future, reaping the 'likes' and 'cool story bro'-like dialogue that would ensue my story being told.
I have no idea, of course, but I must assume that we all have begun to do this. Our thoughts are quickly becoming consumed with quantity of people we can get to enjoy our story. How many likes can I get from taking a photo of this weird guy, this car accident, this funny cat.
No longer is much of anything for personal mementos - a majority of it is for transmutation to the digital world.
So I thought deeper - what would it be like to be the opposite? How long have we been story tellers?
Of course since the advent of social & digital media, its boomed - now everyone needs to be able to tell good stories, but a century ago, I wonder. Was it the same? At the ball room party, was it the story teller that got the laughs, or was it the suave philosopher?
A thousand years ago, were people tilling the dirt of their fields, sweeping the steps of their castles, and sailing the trade winds - all the while thinking about how to tell others of their adventures? I'm sure there were many, many great storytellers of those times, but I highly doubt everyone was doing it.
It was just an interesting thought. A thought I hope to get a lot of likes and comments from. A thought that I hope keeps me from being absorbed in the future. The story can be pieced together after the experience. The experience itself is priceless, however.
It's all true! I have found myself doing the same, as if part of my brain has been been given the permanent job of summarizing experiences for Facebook. The first thing I saw when I crawled out of bed this morning was a fabulous sunrise, which I tried to immediately capture on camera, rather than simply staring in awe. I wonder how much of that instinct is a generous impulse to share with my friends.. and how much is was just bragging rights that I was up that early and got to see it.
ReplyDeleteBut I do sometimes post some stuff on FB that only I can see, the social media equivalent of writing myself a note I suppose.
I'm glad you blogged these thoughts, because it is easier to flick back through the pages of a blog than it is to scroll through someone's entire Facebook history!