The Technologically Overstimulated Army

Another Way To Look At Things

By Jim Calder

Do you have trouble focusing? Find that you are staying up later and later on the computer? Feel like you can never just focus your attention on one thing or project? The solution is simple, turn all your shit off permanently and go see a doctor. However, if this is too extreme for you, you could just read this blog and see a new way of looking at things.

I am technologically overstimulated.

Thanks to modern technology I have the attention span that is the size of a gnat. I had a half-day at work today and planned on working on a freelance project but as usual I got sucked into many, many things. My work email, Facebook, Facebook Chat, a Youtube video or 10, Gmail, Gchat, organizing my Google docs, Blackberry Messenger, Texts, and so on.

I find some evenings I am online for hours and have lost focus. I yearn for the days before my day when people sat in half lit rooms smoking and drinking whiskey while slowly typing ideas on a typewriter. Think of all the “boxes of failed ideas” that existed on hard paper somewhere in the rooms of the past. Ideas must have been more valuable back then, more rare. They weren’t just tweeted, posted on Facebook or emailed out without thinking them through.

Just as my attention span was about to rip me from this google doc that I am typing this blog in, a brave new thought hit me.

What if our “modern Technology” – especially the virtual chats – equals today’s version of “boxes of failed ideas”? Today, we hash and flush out our ideas with others instead of forming the ideas in quiet rooms on our own. We run our ideas past small focus groups consisting of family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers with similar interests.

Ideas kept to yourself will never thrive. Share them and grow them with others.

PS: Don’t fear the boxes of failed ideas, they are your biggest asset.

Jim Calder is the brand architect and co-founder of ProLong Magazine. Jim was born with the perfect combination of cockiness and self consciousness. He has over 10 years of publishing industry experience and lives and works in Philadelphia, Pa. Jim strongly believes that the current 9-5 Monday-Friday format of “Work” is dying. Those that refuse to recognize this will be left behind in the decaying office complexes across America. He currently can be found on the greatest adventure of his life as a newlywed with his wife Melissa. Jim can be contacted via email at jim@prolongmagazine.com