David Murdock on technology and the value of breaking good habits
As I’ve discovered many, many times – almost as if it were a kind of habit – I’m a creature of habit. Doing the same thing every day at roughly the same time is one thing, but I’ll get on a train of thought, for example, and stay there until the end. And then, as if I enjoyed the ride so much, I’ll do it again.
Then I will occasionally recognize what pattern I have fallen into. This kind of thought occurred to me recently in relation to one of my other Favorite topics – how technology has changed our lives… and not always for the better.
Overall, I like technology. I find it hard to convince people of the idea because years ago I had a reputation for being “anti-technology.” I’m not that at all. I’m someone who sees no reason to switch to new technology if the old one works. For example, I’ll never be someone who queues up for the latest model of cell phone.
At least, that’s what I thought. Let’s take a basic piece of modern cell phone “tech”: text messaging. Yes, I use my cell phone’s text messaging feature… but I like it so much I almost hate it. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that I cringe every time the notification “bing” goes off. Most of the time, it’s nothing. My friends know how much I hate texting, and go easy on me unless it’s something appropriate for it, like a quick question or something of that nature. They also know that if a “text stream” lasts longer than a short while, I’ll call them. Talking is so much more efficient.
However, many people resort to “flip phones” that lack many of the features of modern mobile phones. Flip phones are usually Do can send text messages but is more difficult to use.
It’s that convenience factor at work. A few days ago I bought a book for my Kindle e-reader, a book that I already owned in a physical format. However, the electronic version was cheap and I sometimes find it easier to read a Kindle. Then I realized exactly how many books I own both in electronics And physical formats. This is crazy.
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And one more thing about my Kindle – sometime a few months ago I noticed that it was tracking reading stats, such as whether or not the Kindle was “used” on a given day. I say “used” for a reason. Since discovering this feature, I can’t “miss” a day. I have a huge “streak” with my Kindle “reading insights.”
Insights! The only “insight” here is that I sometimes flip back and forth about 10 pages to “gain points” for a day to keep my streak going. That’s not reading, that’s obsession.
This is how we spoil reading for people. That’s it.
So I want to rebel. Almost every day I think to myself, “Today I’m not going to read on Kindle. I’m going to break this streak.” And then I actually break this streak… adding another day to my record. I’m torn between really wanting to not read and really wanting to read.
And I like reading! Imagine someone not like to read.
I keep whispering to myself that I will free myself from these habits. However, reading is a Good Habit and it just feels wrong.
Maybe I should just disable the stats tracking feature on my Kindle. I’m sure there’s a way to do that.
But the problem is that habits are hard to break. There’s one new habit in my life that I probably need to break before I break these good habits. And that’s YouTube.
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If you ever pull up a video clip on YouTube, the algorithm remembers it and suggests more of it for you next time. So if you hear about an extraordinary double play at a baseball game somewhere up north and pull it up on YouTube, YouTube remembers it. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent recently watching clips of extraordinary MLB plays.
And clips from Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Word has spread quickly – last night I watched an hour of publicity interviews with the cast of the Avengers films. Publicity interviews for films that have been released Years These interviews are hilarious by the way.
And… well, you name it. I have watched almost every lightsaber duel in the war of stars series in the last few weeks. So much so that I have something like a ranking in my head from “worst to best”.
That’s the love of YouTube. People make their own videos and post them… and they’re really good. There are some amateur filmmakers who are really talented at creating special effects. And amateur musicians who wouldn’t otherwise be heard. And amateurs of all kinds whose work would otherwise go unnoticed.
The only problem with our electronic world is that it takes a long time to become practical. As I said, I have seen some wonderful amateur films on YouTube, but I also saw a lot of not so wonderful ones before I got to the good ones.
Therefore, I limit my Good Habits. Sometimes you just need to rest.
David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are his own.
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