Monday, June 11, 2012

SURVIVING A WORLD OF GIGABYTES AND GIGGLEBITES

Willingly or not, you and I navigate through a world of gigabytes. But lets not forget those once-upon- a-time gigglebites. Here's the difference. Gigabytes are how we describe our 24/7 mass of information. Gigglebites are how we translate all this information for ourselves. The first is part of the new digital age; the second is part of our old human nature. You know...trying to figure out complicated stuff by the use of uncomplicated captions.

For instance, giggly captions we stick on public figures in order to label-them-so-we-don't-have-to-take-the-time-to-understand-them. Romney: Job Cutting Capitalist!  Obama: Islamic Socialist!  LeBron James: Follow the Money Traitor!  John Edwards: Wife Cheater!  Mel Gibson: Jew Hater!  Paris Hilton: Young Fool! The Pope: Old Fool!

It's easy to see how handy Gigglebites can be. No need to bother with the person's past contributions, current visions, or their place in the overall society. We already know them for what they are. Period, end of discussion!

Are there any upbeat Gigglebites...? Well, yes there are. Steven Spielberg: Genius!  Donald Trump: Rich! Johnny Carson: Icon!  Caroline Kennedy: Camelot!

The computer age is stuffing our brain circuitry with so much stuff every hour of every day that the circuitry has to scale back enough not to crash. Captioning people has been one of humanity's handiest and more honored strategies. And that's not likely to ever change.

But if any truth-seekers out there want to try, Carl Jung's advice sounds like a good place to begin: "Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of others..." Nothing giga nor giggly about that injunction!

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