Good and bad uses of technology
So, in this day and age, when it seems like technology is threatening to get in the way of love and friendship, I thought I’d write some about good and bad uses of tech.
Technology is not by itself evil, bad, wrong, sinful, or something to be avoided. A lot of the universe runs on various types of technology, and we do rather like it here a lot of the time. However, it’s possible to use technology in bad and unhealthy ways.
1) When you are with someone, *BE* with them. Don’t spend all your time looking at your smartphone.
2) Never feel like you can’t turn it off. If you feel like you can’t turn your phone/computer/internet connection/anything off, you have fallen into something called addiction. You will find a number of groups, like AA, who are out there to help people just like you. I would strongly suggest availing yourself of their help, because addiction is not fun at all. It is the space where your free will is no longer operating properly and you can not make your intentions into your actions.
3) Never worry about recording the future unless your job or passion is recording the future. If you’re really into documenting, or multitracking, or video production, that’s one thing. If you’re not, don’t record the concerts you’re at in a way that demands you’re attention. You’ll be less *there*, less experiencing the event, because you’re worrying about keeping the camera aimed the right way, and so often that it’s sad you’ll be experiencing the concert on a viewfinder or small screen instead of in the authentic, 360 degree high res high frame rate dream we like to call reality.
4) Remember that this is in one sense a dream. The experience you are having is happening in your head. Once you’re sane and healthy, you can go back to any point in time and experience it in all it’s 3D glory. So don’t take so many photographs, because what is the point? Instead work on having the sanity to be able to see anywhere you’ve been and anyone you’ve been with via mental effort.
5) Remember that the tech available for sale on earth is utter junk compared with the tech you already have in your head. You’re a far more powerful supercomputer than anything you can buy here. Don’t neglect building a set of tools to enable you to get that supercomputer to do what you want it to. That’s far more important than collecting photographs.
6) Pay attention to your emotions. Too many of us walk through life totally numb, not really feeling anything or experiencing anything. Pay attention to what feels good, what feels right. Do more of that. Praise that. Worship that, even. You’ll also be praising and/or worshiping the part of the team that designed this corner of reality, and having them feel genuinely and authentically liked by you is a good idea, since they can help bring you the things you want.
7) Don’t get caught in stupid time-wasting activities that don’t make you feel anything good. Facebook can easily be one of these things. So can facebook games like farmville. You want to have a authentically awesome experience, and you *can*. Go do the things that are the real thing. For me, this includes things like skating, bowling, driving at Lemons, playing music (especially composing multitrack), sex, road trips, and other sorts of adventures. Technology like computers make it far easier to get caught in ‘neutral-feeling’ loops – like playing video games that don’t actually make you happy but eat up the hours. Infinity is far too precious to be wasted.