In Dreams
I consume information very differently today than I did three decades ago.I used to concentrate on one thing at a time, for an extended period of time. The closest I ever came to informational multi-tasking was playing a game with the television on.
[Aside: that television, by the way, was an off-brand, tube 27" model (HUGE for it's day, and it weighed tons) that I hauled up two flights of stairs by myself because I was consumed with getting it hooked up as quickly as possible.]
Today, instead of a single-stream focus for extended lengths of time, everything comes in bits and bursts. Fragments of information, for seconds at at a time. I'm constantly scanning.
Scanformation, I guess.
I've written before about how this makes me feel different on a second to second basis, and I don't really like the feeling. A bit unsettled. Less calm.
When I woke up this morning, I realized there has been another side effect: I dream differently now.
Instead of long narratives and complete stories, I tend to get a rush of fragments instead. It's interesting, certainly, but I like it less.
I enjoyed waking up with a full story in my head.
This makes me wonder if kids are never going to experience some of these things the way I did, because of the way they've consumed information their whole lives.
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