Epiphanies and conclusions

So I finally finished my homework and after hours of Youtube-ing and Google-fu-ing, it led me to a couple of conclusions.

Firstly, perhaps our greatest freedom may be the ablility to CHOOSE freedom from freedom.

Sounds pretty meta, but it's true.

Many people are barraged by tweets, status updates, and messages on a daily basis. However, this causes them to become habitually ignorant of what's really important.

Secondly, while the internet and its benefits can also have certain drawbacks, on the whole, it is up to the user to define the experience they have with whatever digital medium they are interacting with.

This means that despite there being an ocean of knowledge readily available, if one becomes too consumed with learning EVERYTHING, then they might not learn ANYTHING at all.......

Knowledge vs. More Knowledge vs. Less Knowledge

"Forcing ourselves offline may be the path to true knowledge"


But what IS true knowledge?

Is it defined by a tangible metric? Or is it a concept that is subjective?

What if one day you found out that you had been doing something the wrong way all your life?

Like eating a banana, for example:

Maybe it's not as simple as that.

Perhaps in order to obtain true knowledge, one must abstain from becoming distracted by excess knowledge.

But can increased knowledge really destroy us?


For example, you might decline to undergo testing for the genetic marker for Huntington's disease.

Or perhaps you might go on a talk show and have your spouse/significant other tested to see if "they are the father".


In any case, the acquisition of knowledge represents a double-edged sword. Used wisely, it can have great dividends. However, if used irresponsibly then........

Might give this a spin....

So it seems that the methods I am using to keep focused aren't entirely working. Therefore  I have had to resort to a new tool: Freedom! It's an app for macs that blocks internet access for up to 8 hours!

It's going to be my mast to help me stop getting distracted from all the knowledge out on the internet.

It's ironic that in order to acquire a specific area of knowledge, that one must restrict the knowledge available around themselves.

Is this really the only way to further one's drive for specific information? Or is there another way to avoid the blinders that Freedom provides?

Paradox, perhaps?

If at first you don't succeed......

This is a continuation of my last post (consider it a "status update").


While trying to find a suitable "new medium" to remediate Peggy Orenstein's "Stop Your Search Engines", I came across a band called Faded Paper Figures. Their second album is called "New Medium. Oddly enough, their lead singer is also a professor at Yale University - how fitting!

Upon making this new musical discovery, I immediately embarked on a sonic journey through most of their discography (courtesy of youtube). Before I knew it, 3 hours had past.


Perhaps I should find some sort of program to assist me in my quest for "true knowledge".......

A lesson in self-efficacy

Lately I've been experimenting with intentionally creating obstacles in order to curb my internet use. Reminds me of what Ulysses did in Homer's Odyssey; except less sirens, more html.

If only I could keep FOCUSSED!!!


Unfortunately, upon embarking in this experiment, I seem to be more scattered in my attempts to limit my procrastination on the internet.

Maybe i'll try again tomorrow......