Here Comes the Idiot Part

Ten or fifteen years ago there was a shampoo commercial featuring the ever-perky Jennifer Aniston, who in the middle of the 30-second ad woke up the dozing viewers with "Here comes the science part -  concentrate!"  At the time, I found the commercial both condescending and extremely irritating in its airheadedness.  Maybe I didn't belong to the target group.

More recently, however, I've come to the conclusion that I would need more friendly reminders from Jennifer Aniston.  You see, I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the science part.  And not just the science part but also the literature part, the arts part and the philosophy part.  In fact, virtually anything else than the Lady Gaga part, the Kim Kardashian's boob part, the Big Brother part and the liking your status part - in short, the idiot part - are beginning to be a bit of an effort for me.

How did this happen?

In my life, I can identify three points, which have been detrimental to my ability to concentrate.  The arrival of the broadband connection in 2002, the introduction of wi-fi at home in 2003, and Facebook since 2007.  These three things have profoundly changed the way I spend my free time and communicate with the rest of the world.  It's far too easy to wander around my home with the laptop or iPad, always online.  I spend more and more time swiping tempered glass with my index finger and hitting the refresh button and less and less time reading a book, listening to (and I mean really listening) music or talking to my friends.

In fact, it has become very difficult for me even to concentrate on watching an entire movie on tv. Thirty minutes on, something pops in my mind and I cannot resist the temptation to grab my iPad and check it on the internet. In the meantime, the movie runs in the background and I gradually lose interest to watch it.  Reading an entire book is beginning to amount to nothing less than Chinese water torture.

While the technological advancements have enabled us to have more and more real-time information about the world and to keep in touch with people,  we have less and less time and opportunities to process this information.  In other words, to think.  Most of us are under constant information bombardment at work.  London Stock exchange down by 20 points.  Juventus beat Lazio 2-0.  ECB ready for unlimited secondary market operations.  Then, we continue this at home, voluntarily.  Matti Möttönen had a great time in Reeperbahn.  John Doe likes this.  Liisa went to the cinema and thought the film was only so-so.

"So what?" you ask.  Am I not just another middle-aged guy ranting about how things used to be great and now everything is bullshit?  Can't we just recognize the world is now different and people have adapted to the new reality?  That may well be, but the fact remains that the greatest things homo sapiens has accomplished in its history required some concentration.  And not just some, but a LOT of it.  Concentration is what great things are made of.  Do you think Michelangelo had a short attention span when he was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling?  Or Johann Sebastian Bach, when he was composing the Goldberg variations, did he stop every two minutes to give someone a thumbs-up?  I assure you, they did not.  Would they have benefited from smart phones?  Or enjoyed having one?  I don't know, but something makes me awfully glad that they didn't.

So if it bothers me so much, why don't I just switch off the computer and start reading a book?  Because it's an addiction.  You could ask the same question of an alcoholic or a drug addict, and the answer would be the same.  I know it's stupid, but it's fun.  Getting drunk is fun.  Getting stoned is fun.  Giving thumbs-up to what someone just ate is also (sort of) fun, but to a boring government official a lot less dangerous than an LSD trip.

Therefore, I keep doing it.  In any case, I'm now trying to limit the time that I waste on activities that make me an idiot and do more of what made some of us great human beings.  Such as writing.  Some of us write things like The Sound and the Fury.  I write this.  It's not great, but it's something.  It's more than writing about what I just ate, and a lot more than liking what you just ate.

Don't worry, I still think it's fantastic if you had a satisfactory meal.

So now I can congratulate myself for having been able to concentrate for an hour to write this.  And if you made it thus far, I also congratulate you for being able to concentrate for five minutes to read this.

You can now relax.  The science part is over.