Merlin Mann, one of the people who inspired me to write online, on how easy it is to become overwhelmed by useless online discourse:
I really feel like that combination of little, easy motor skills and clicking combined with feeling a little less bored for a minute is completely addictive to people. When the main way we communicate with each other is through all these things — and I’m not saying, “Don’t use Facebook, don’t use Twitter.” What I am saying is, if you’re not mindful about the amount of your attention that goes to thinking about and consuming those things, you’re not going to be making good stuff, either for that medium or elsewhere. That’s what I got kind of hung up on, when I finally realized that all I was doing was eating and producing potato chips all day long.
This is part of a fantastic interview with Mann over on 3 Quarks Daily; if you have a spare ten minutes, I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing. (You can also listen to the MP3 version here.)
(An aside: if you’re busy now and can’t read this and have an iPhone/iPad, might I suggest Instapaper?)
If you like what you read from Mann in this interview, don’t miss Better, one of his essays that pounds angrily on the front door of modern online culture. As a guy who lives this stuff every day, it’s a refreshing avowal.
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