‘If the reading revolution represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the screen revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history.’ – James Marriott
Words don’t come like they used, my mind feels mute, riddled with inattention and brain fog. I want to have questions when someone asks me If I do, but all there is, is static. I feel like my brain has been on consume mode so long it lost the off switch. Where did my critical thinking go? Where did the joy in learning go? Why do I feel like a shoddy version of a computer stuck loading updates? I’ve been struggling with this for several months now, though I think the problem has been a good decade in the making. I’m only just now aware of how bad it’s gotten and I fucking hate it with a passion. I go online and see the following:
To say this is disheartening is an understatement. Its downright despairing… I refuse to be another statistic in the post-literate apocalypse. But what can I do? What can we do to stave on the apocalypse and bring about the reclamation? I’m still figuring this out as I go, but here’s what has been slowly chiseling away at my personal internet induced stupor:
- Practicing shifting perception. Foreground, background, meditation, and mindfulness. Getting my brain to realize that it is not actually one with the big shiny screen in front of it and that it is embodied.
- Going to the forest with the dogs.
- Exploring things I used to love as a kid like Egyptology and languages.
- Forcing myself to create. Whether that’s a sketch, a page in my commonplace book, or a project.
- Reading old books and difficult books.
- Maintaining a commonplace book. Having a page for questions, a page for the books that I’ve read, quotations, grammar, terminology, sketches etc.
- Taking courses online with Catherine Project.
- Lecture series with The Great Courses.
- Writing. No matter the quality get it down on the page. Write like your life depends on it. Because it does. Your mind depends on it. Hit publish even if it isn’t perfect. It must be done.
I’m still having trouble with creating. It’s stilted and awkward now. It comes in bursts and fizzles out. I’m still consuming too much and unable to balance it. But the more I try to, the less awkward it will be and hopefully one day, it will be as effortless as breathing. Until then, I fumble through the dense fog of my internet addled mind, til the last remnants wisp away in the face of the morning sun.