Make CyberSense

Does Digital Dilute Materialism?

HOW BUYING & SELLING OF DIGITAL PRODUCTS UNDERCUTS MATERIALISM
(slightly shorter version forthcoming in Yoga Living Magazine, March/April, 2009)

Materialism on the Wane?

“Materialism”—getting and spending.  Want not—waste a lot.  Which boys have the best new toys?  It’s our acquisitive, wealth-oriented drive to own physical things—the more, the bigger, the more expensive, the better.  As if nothing else mattered, or even existed.  But wait—there’s a ghost in the machine.  From the very fountainhead of technology itself, something a lot more like spirit than matter is pouring into everyday buying and selling.  It’s actually hard to own it, and there are lessons to be had—once we get past the glitter.  A halfway house between material and spiritual, could that be--“digital”?

Music, Migrations, and Hope-in-Hard-Times

HOW HUMAN HOPE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SUPPORTED BY PARTICIPATORY MUSIC
(slightly shorter version published originally in Yoga Living Magazine, January-February, 2008)

WHO Earns Twice the Pay?!

Imagine you are part of an expedition 200 years ago, venturing into the Canadian Northwest.  As a voyageur, you strain from dawn to dusk to help paddle a 40 foot canoe.  Where there’s no water, you hump a 90 pound pack, and later the canoe itself.  Up and down wind the portages, across treacherous, rock-strewn ridges.  Hernias, or bone-breaking falls are common.  Either, in this wilderness, can end a life.  Still you only get paid half as much as the little guy sitting next to you with the prodigious memory and loud voice. 

Who’s he?  the boss?  the guide?  No, actually he’s the chanteur, the expedition’s singer.  He leads the different songs sung many times a day by your entire company.  It’s his contribution that is worth twice yours.  Shared music brings rhythm to your strokes, and keeps a smile on your face. In some fundamental way, the songs keep hope alive in your struggling heart.  

High-Value Sing-Alongs?

OK.  So our low-tech our ancestors placed a high value on sing-alongs.  That’s nice, but surely not relevant to us, struggling with a globalized, 21st century recession.  After all, most people, we know, can’t even carry a tune.  And who needs to, with CD’s and smart phones that play our favorite music perfectly on demand.  Who cares if ragged bunches of backwoods grunts sang there way across the continent?  Had Ipods been available, wouldn’t those voyageurs have all plugged in to enjoy their separate favorites?

Voice-only, Email, and Text--the Goodwill Squeezeplay

WHY GOODWILL SUFFERS PASSING THRU THIN PIPES OF INTERNET COMMUNICATION
(slightly shorter version published originally in Yoga Living Magazine, November-Decemter, 2008)

The Good Stuff--All On a Mobile Phone?

An ad jumps out across your screen, mostly covering the information you want to read.  They're getting so annoying, you think, these aggressive, space-grabbing web ads.  Still your eyes follow a mixed up group of pictures, all moving towards the ad's centerpoint.  Some wink out. Others pop in, replacing them.  They all grow smaller and begin to form a rectangular shape.  God, you think, what IS this? 

You see a sailboat, a wineglass, hands clasping, many shots of a young daughter in white dancing or smiling.  Finally, this wistful collage morphs into a modern, Internet-enabled cell phone.  You hear the punch line.  “Connect to all the things you love in life."

But how wise is this guidance?  Is relying more and more on this little device the key to all that’s good and wholesome? 

Work, Service, and Media Hygiene

HOW TO COPE WITH TOXIC MESSAGES THAT PERVADE MODERN MEDIA
(slightly shorter version published originally in Yoga Living Magazine, September-October, 2008)

Work Should "Wake Up the Soul"

Karma Yoga--it's the yoga of work and service.  In an increasingly sit-down, keyboard-focused, stare-at-the-screen workplace, good CyberSense can help you stay whole and healthy.  So I could write here about ergonomic chairs, good monitor placement, frequent stand-up-and-stretch breaks. 

Those are all important.  Care for your body.  Do your asanas (yogic exercises)--or some form of preferred physical activity.  But you can look up ergonomics and stretches easily elsewhere.  Let's talk here about what you are exposed to on all those screens, and in print as well. 

In his classic book Karma-Yoga, Vivekananda says:  "the aim of all work is to bring out the power of the mind ...  to wake up the soul."  My last CyberSense essay contrasted reading with video.   Too much video, especially with the prevalence of "eye-candy," actually dulls the "power of your mind."   Attention span, and imaginative focus on the mythic journey of your own soul--these are more likely strengthened by certain sorts of reading.

But What Kind of Messages Pour In?

Now with all the material your mind consumes, via whatever media, at work or play--there is this other, deeper issue.  What kind of messages are pouring in?  And what are you doing with those messages? 

Books, Video, and Family Health

COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF MUCH VIDEO VS READING ON ATTENTION & INTELLECT
(published originally in Yoga Living Magazine, July August, 2008)

Books Can Help, Too Much Video Can Hurt

I think it was Francis Bacon who said, “speech makes a ready man, but writing a careful one.”  Conversation, with it’s unpredictable ebb and flow, tends to promote quick wittedness--whereas writing a lot teaches you more about organizing thoughts carefully.  Similarly, today we might say, “too much video dulls the mind, while reading enriches it.” 

Good cybersense is knowledge you need to hold your family together in an increasingly wireless, media-dominated world.  How the different media affect your own and your loved ones minds is important.  Over time, these effects can be profound.

Not That There Aren’t Great Videos

OK now, video fans, don’t freak.  I totally agree that there are videos to die for...

CyberSense--Holistic Health in a Wireless World

HOW DO WE STAY HEALTHY SPENDING HALF OUR LIVES ON A COMPUTER?
(published originally in Yoga Living Magazine, May-June 2008)

Going Within--but Not the Old Sacred Way

We live, perhaps without quite noticing, in the midst of a great exodus.  Most of us, more or less, are on the trek, like it or not.   Left behind is the old Earth, where good bodies were just the thing, and face-to-face communication was key.  Back there, “reach out and touch someone” implied being at arms length, and “I’ll see you” meant just literally that. 

Where we are going now is “within.”  Not however the deep sacred “within” of the saints and the sages, but rather a hastily constructed, profit-driven, furiously evolving, virtual “within” the marketing people like to call “i-life.”  The “i” here stands for “Internet.”  But as so many different devices embrace chips, we might also say “e-life”—“e” now for all things “electronic.” Because this new promised land comes to us increasingly via all sorts of electronic screens, speakers, and controllers—in everything from cars to coffee-makers.

Still, Market-Speak is Right

The advantages, we are told, are huge--unprecedented in all recorded history.  Well, for once, market-speak is right.  Miniaturized, wireless computation is a nerd alchemist’s wet dream....