Seems whenever Jenn calls, I’m either working, watching TV, or trying to do both at the same time. Actually, when I’m writing, I usually have the headset on and am chatting with someone via voice. My Linux computer runs the Massively chatroom writers use to discuss stories and just chat, as well as my picture editing software and either some music or a movie playing. Once or twice a week, I add TV to the mix for American Idol. I was too busy to watch Lost, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who this weekend, so I downloaded them all and watched them on the Linux computer.
During this time I was either writing, working on organizing the player guild I created on EverQuest and dealing with the people management woes there (it’s supposed to be a game, but to keep something going, you have to keep managing it. A perceived lack of interest kills this stuff.) Saturday, I actually got to play a little.
It seems I have no free time… and I guess that’s right. I always have something to do. If I don’t have something to do, I usually fall asleep. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it may just be 21st century life, and we’ll all find we are always busy all the time, and just adapt.
When I read this article this morning about how sitcoms were the accepted way of burning off all these hundreds of millions of hours of time people could have used to do other stuff if they’d had the tools… I knew I’d found someone who was describing what I could see happening. Now that we have the tools to harness people’s limitless potential, TV is dying, all the old world is dying. All the things that we, the people, invented to soak up our potential, are dying. I’m writing about games. Jenn is spreading the goodness of Korean dramas across the nation while getting in shape with martial arts and raising a precocious daughter. Hillary is juggling a job that requires extreme creativity with a growing family. Allyson has a family, a job, and is returning to school.
None of us has free time. The world has less and less of it. The world is changing so fast these days, and I’m happy I am alive today to be part of it.
Since these sorts of revelations occur to me only when they’ve been hammered into me over and over again until I finally become aware of them, Robert Charles Wilson’s novel Spin, which I’ve been reading lately on my Reader, also covers how society adapts when the future is thrust upon them.
Sans Catharsis 
7 Comments
That’s an interesting point about t.v.. I am so happy to have only limited access to television programming and movies (via Netlix and with delays built in by the shipping process). When I had lots of access, I used it. I grew up watching a lot of t.v., and it is very natural for me to do it. But now t.v. is really a treat rather than a pasttime, and I enjoy it so much more as a result. Plus I get off on accomplishment (be that throwing a party, getting to the museum as we did this weekend, or doing actual chores), and I just accomplish more without t.v. available to me. Plus I go to bed earlier. I know many people are much more disciplined than I am, and can have full access to 100 channels and just watch one hour of t.v. per day. But that’s not me, apparently!
While I think it’s great to have varied interests and have different things to do to keep us busy. There is something to be said for rest and relaxation. We are not robots and this is something both our bodies and minds need. I’m not saying watching sitcoms is the way to go but I don’t think it’s a bad thing if people aren’t running from one activity to another. I would never want to live with every moment of my day spoken for.
I just reread your post and realized, this may be 21st century life, but it was also 19th century life and 18th century life, etc. (at least for our ancestors, who likely didn’t get to sit around waiting for their chalices to be refilled with good mead — we were probably the ones fetching the mead!). It’s just that now it is a choice. :o)
@Hillary – Re-reading Brenda’s posts, that’s all we really have since she doesn’t post too often anymore. ::sighs::
Life was a royal pain 80+ and prior. I watched a few of these BBC series (available on netflix) that has modern day people live authentically as others did during a certain period of time. I watched the manor house (showing what servants had to do and work with on a manor and interaction with the family they serve) as well as one about the early 1900s. Even if they had tv back then – they wouldn’t have time to watch it. So much went in to maintaining the basics for daily life – every moment was spoken for.
80+ YEARS – forgot to put that in there. oopsy.
Well, I realized people were probably pretty bored with weather reports and my feelings about weather.
@Tipa – you’ve never solely posted about the weather. And in a blog – you’re not supposed to be catering to your readers but instead just posting what’s going on and what’s on your mind. So if weather is on your mind – then you post about weather.