I’ve been intending to write this post for nearly an hour now. Why hadn’t I been able to start? Procrastination? No, it wasn’t procrastination. It was because of my irrational desire to be drenched in irrelevant, ineffective, incomplete, up-to-date information.
As I was sitting down at the computer I noticed my Twitter client had just updated. Someone retweeted an agreeable quote that I thought worthy of a retweet myself, others were having arguments that I rooted for and followed closely for ten minutes, but wouldn’t dare participate in. Such-and-such had just published a new blog post, so I headed over to their site and read that. While writing a comment, my phone vibrated and let out a little chime. Like some bizarre human variation of Pavlov’s dog, I reached for it, salivating at the prospect of whatever untold knowledge would be held within whatever message I’d just received.
And now… well, now I’m no closer to the life I want, no more intelligent than anyone else, no closer to finishing my projects and, to make matters worse, I have a disgustingly accurate and elaborate time line of the goings-on of the Gosselin house ingrained into my mind. Those are neurons I’ll likely never get back.
I’m no longer human. I’m a receptacle of pop culture nonsense, false feuds about health care, and whatever form of raging sensationalism the talking heads subject me to.
I don’t reflect any greater truth. I have not created anything of beauty. I have not served “the least of these.” I do not live a wholly remarkable life of passion and experience. I do not stand in awe of the vast star-dotted darkness outside my window and feel as small as I ought to feel. I’m not sure I remember what it is to feel.
Introspection and self-examination have been replaced by data and distraction — mental consumerism.
Life is spent looking while never seeing.
My eyes turn from one glowing rectangle to another. We are a society of far too many glowing rectangles. TVs, cell phones, laptops. I want to see an unchanging mass of chaos like the branches of a tree swaying predictably in a gentle wind or the veins of its leaves being climbed upon by a Lady Bug. And then, after a while, I don’t want to see anything. I want for the sun to vanish from the sky and for the tree to dim to a ghost of its former shape. I want to remember what it was like for day to be day and night to be night, work to be work and rest to be rest.
And most importantly, I want to find silence.
In all the 24 hour news stations, straight to my pocket emails, too-easily-initiated phone conversations, flooded feed readers, and trite Twitter updates, I lost whoever this person is I’m supposed to be.
Like a modern day Adam, I’ve exchanged my soul for knowledge. I’ve exchanged Truth for speculation and misinformation. How, I wonder, does someone break away from this kind of central societal notion, this need to have an opinion and to know everything about everything to make up for one’s utter mediocrity?
I’m better than this. We all are. Let’s stop giving value to the things which give us no value. Let’s stop listening to the stories and opinions of people who have taken risks to get in the limelight and start taking some risks of our own.
We are beautiful expressions of a greater purpose.
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Hey, I'm JD. I'm a writer, web designer and contrarian entrepreneur. Wage Slave Rebel is a place where I (and others) explore alternative and ethical ways to earn a living apart from the corporate hierarchy. The goal of this site is to help people escape wage slavery and start reaping the full rewards of their skills and passions. 
Very deep post. I can't agree with you more about having too many bright rectangle screens in our lives. I have started to fix this by never turning on my cellphone before 2pm. It gives me all morning to work on my things without someone else phoning me and requesting that I drop my schedule for them.
Most of those screens have an off button.
"We are beautiful expressions of a greater purpose."
Yes we are!
To find silence, I get up when the world around me is generally silent, at 4 AM and just sit there at the end of the bed, and work on thinking nothing. I'll let you know when I have succeeded, but I AM making progress. I told myself to shut up a couple of times this morning (in my thoughts, of course).
Rasheed
Wow JD! Really cool post, It's almost like a poem, but so true. Its either TV, a computer, a cell phone, an ipod or something else electronic. It's so nice to be outside in the green, I don't know if many of us could survive without technology. It's an ensalvement I think, but one that some of us use to try and build up a life to be able to break away from it.
I honestly think if I had a good income from online or enough money in the bank that I would go and travel, laptop with just for work, but not tv or cell phone, and just explore life.:)
I think you and many of our fellow bloggers have the same quest. Enjoyed reading this! Have an awesome weekend! Cheers Diggy
Very well written, JD. My favorite paragraph:
"And now… well, now I’m no closer to the life I want, no more intelligent than anyone else, no closer to finishing my projects and, to make matters worse, I have a disgustingly accurate and elaborate time line of the goings-on of the Gosselin house ingrained into my mind. Those are neurons I’ll likely never get back."
This is a real kick-in-the-arse for me. Keep it up!
Well said. All this technology created a need rather than solve a need, IMO, and it's going to be pretty hard to undo it. However, I don't believe that technology is inherently bad or good, or that it's single-handedly responsible our growing ignorance and isolation. The problem is that we humans really don't know how to handle any kind of moderation, even as much as we want it.
Hell yeah! I have nothing more to add other than BRAVO!
A. Malys
I agree, too many glowing rectangles. I've been trying to really limit my need to be constantly updated, and it's working and making me much happier. My cell phone sucks, I check my feed reader 1 time a day, I check Facebook twice quickly, and I moderate comments on my blog once daily. Twitter is my weakness though. But, it really comes down to discipline I guess. Good luck with eliminating the unnecessary! Great post J.D, I love this one.
Oh the plight of the electronically connected and curious. Though I am an incredibly self-disciplined individual, there seems to be no schedule for checking email and updating twitter and reading all the new blogs in my feed that I can strictly maintain.
I just checked my email for the third time while writing this comment. There are not that many people that email me urgent messages! …if any that are really urgent…
Good luck with the quest. Let me know when you find a solution!
Hey JD, Oh my…you just described my morning….I wish I was knee deep into writing the next post for my blog. But here sit, multi-tasking my morning away with many tasks that are so usless they will be forgotten by the afternoon. Your conclusion is so well put.
Thank you for shaking me by the shoulders! Take Care, Jill
Jill's current post: How To Make Fear Your Bitch–Turning Fear Into Challenge.
Hey JD, Oh my…you just described my morning….I wish I was knee deep into writing the next post for my blog. But here sit, multi-tasking my morning away with many tasks that are so usless they will be forgotten by the afternoon. Your conclusion is so well put.
Thank you for shaking me by the shoulders! Take Care, Jill
Jill's current post: How To Make Fear Your Bitch–Turning Fear Into Challenge.
Hey JD, Oh my…you just described my morning….I wish I was knee deep into writing the next post for my blog. But here sit, multi-tasking my morning away with many tasks that are so usless they will be forgotten by the afternoon. Your conclusion is so well put.
Thank you for shaking me by the shoulders! Take Care, Jill
Jill's current post: How To Make Fear Your Bitch–Turning Fear Into Challenge.
Can I get an hallelujah?
It's so true, trying to cut out the non-value-adding stuff from your day is tough, because most of them are habits.
"The chains of habit are too small to be seen until they are too strong to be broken."
Not necessarily true, because they actually can be broken if you really want to break them, but the ease in which we live and attain information makes it unseemly to remove onself from the nourishing stream of info. Especially in the blogging world, not knowing every little tidbit is almost crippling in a way, but at the same time sets us free.
great meaningful look at the otherwise technical detail oriented hunt that is lifestyle design. we've all been there, but don't have to always be there. avoiding it is like working a muscle…be a master of selective ignorance and limited information when you have a goal, thats always step 1.
i've been focusing on this lately… here's how.
…i started writing more, but it grew into a post…go figure. if interested, http://thelifedesignproject.com
awesome post J.D!
Very poetically written.
With regards to silence I am planning to take spend a week in silence and away from technology and people in the not too distant future so i'll let you know how it goes.
Great reminder.
I spend far too much time keeping busy with largely insignificant distractions. Sure it is great to keep connected, get information and build relationships but I also need to focus on what really matters.
It seems that everyone is looking for some new location or occupation to provide eternal happiness. It is important to remember to open our eyes and really be in the moment of what we are doing now. Great Post!
Great post! In our information-abundant world, we've stopped looking inside of ourselves for wisdom and we're all out there hunting for knowledge, convinced we're going to find it "out there" and ending up just feeling stressed, overwhelmed, confused and non-the wiser.
We haven't owned a TV for most of the 10 years my husband and I have been married, and that really helps, but the little screen on our laptops is a never-ending challenge to manage, and very easily becomes a black hole into which we throw our time and attention!
cath
how ironic is it that i'm commenting on this post instead of closing the computer?
(great work, man.)
ha I was going to say something about the irony too but of course Levi beat me to it
But this is definitely my favorite post by you so far.
I don't know – it sounds a little like complaining to me. The only one with a gun to your head making you sit there at your computer all the time, or watch the news or answer the phone or text message, is YOU! Put the gun down and use that hand to press the off switch!
Where is your self discipline? Just do it!
Damn dude, nice post.