The ADD Generation

I went to the gym today. I did my workout and then did some cardio too. While I was pedaling away on my upright stationary bike, I couldn’t but help notice a woman to my left on a recumbent bike. As she was biking away in a room filled with large HD tvs showing CNN, the Food Network, and VH1, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of distractions she had with her. Now, I understand the benefits of watching televion as you are on treadmill, bike, or whatnot because it’s can be helpful to put your mind somewhere else while your quads are burning. However, this woman, had positioned in front of her on the bike her Ipod, her cellphone, and a book which she was reading. I was incredulous while I watched her reading, listening to music, texting every minute or so all the while biking. My question is this: Whatever happened to just doing one (or even two) things?

It seems like nowadays we just can’t focus on one thing. While I applaud everyone’s ability to multi-task, I’ve got to worry about the depth of thought each task is receiving. There is something to be said about taking the time to concentrate on one thing and appreciate it.

I see the same type of thought process in the cinema of today. I call it the Michael Bay/Tony Scott style of filmmaking.  If you watch a Michael Bay film carefully, you’ll notice that he almost never holds a shot for more than 5 seconds. Not only that, the camera is always active. It’s always moving closer to, further from, or around the principle actors. With this lack of attention we’d never have such greats films as Lawrence of Arabia. We’d never see that famous mirage shot in the desert. I have this terrible fear that movies will turn into action movie trailers in which we 1 second clips of things exploding and people running cut together until it’s totally incomprehensible.

Maybe as a generation, we should make a deliberate effort to just concentrate on one thing a little bit. Maybe we should cook without the television on so we make a better meal. Maybe the bars should turn off the television sets so their patrons can pay attention to what their friends are saying. Maybe news networks should report on one story at a time instead of having a ticker tape along the bottom of the screen filled with vacuous headlines. Maybe, we’ll be smarter for it, maybe we’ll find more meaning in what we do because of our depth of thought. Maybe the next time I try to discuss something with someone they’ll have more than a cursory opinion.

Just a thought…