The Century's Most Vital Technological Device
By Walt Crawford
American Libraries Columnist
Senior analyst, Research Libraries Group
Column for March 2003
Remember Joseph Janes’s Internet Librarian column, “Sanctuary through Technology” (AL, Dec. 2002, p. 68)? His inspiration was a discussion led by David Levy on “information and the quality of life.” I heard Levy at the end of October 2002, speaking on similar themes at the Charleston Conference. As part of that speech, he asked a question that he clearly regarded as rhetorical. His question, “Who has time to contemplate?” inspired this column.
The presumed answer was, “Nobody here, that’s for sure.” That wasn’t my response, and I don’t think it should be yours. My answer was, “Everybody here, if it matters to them.” This is followed by, “And it should matter to you if you want to maintain your humanity.”
When Levy asked the question, I didn’t see lots of puzzled expressions from people who knew they had time to contemplate. So I chose not to challenge him. Instead, later that afternoon, I retired to a quiet spot to think about what he’d said and how people reacted. In other words, I contemplated his question and the discussion surrounding it. As long as you’re not overscheduled, a conference can be a great time for contemplation, given that a hotel room has fewer distractions than your house or apartment.
Failure to contemplate
After musing on the situation, I still believe we all have time to contemplate, but I also understand how technology can lead us to believe otherwise.
What does that have to do with this column’s title? More than you might expect. I won’t discuss libraries as places for contemplation (which they should be), since Janes covered that so well in December. Instead, I’d like to consider some of the reasons that people avoid contemplation or fail to contemplate.
The usual excuse is busyness, being too busy to spend 15 minutes in quiet thought. I don’t buy that. If you’re so busy that you can’t create a spare quarter-hour twice a week, something’s desperately wrong. You exercise three or four times a week, don’t you? Shouldn’t you also exercise your deeper brain muscles once in a while?
For most of us, I suspect, “busyness” is another word for distractions—the media, technology, and other things that entice us to do something, anything, rather than sit and think. Distractions do interfere with contemplation. It’s hard to think deeply with a sitcom laugh track in the background. I find the combination of deep thought and staring at a Web page (or any other computer screen) almost entirely incompatible. Music helps some people contemplate, but unwanted music destroys concentration. And a ringing phone or beeping pager breaks any contemplative mood.
Thus my nomination for the most important technological device of this year, last year, or almost any year in the past century: Not transistors, not nanotechnology devices, not PCs, not PDAs, not self-circulation laser scanners.
I vote for the off switch—the device that lets you remove distractions and prevent interruptions.
In the habit of jogging with earbuds in place connected to your Discman or iPod? Once or twice a week, turn off the player and use the time to think about things—to contemplate the world around you and yourself. (If the earbuds reduce distracting noise, leave them in. Otherwise, the sounds of nature even in an urban environment can be nice once in a while.)
Next time your favorite TV show gets preempted or shows a rerun, try using the off switch on your TV instead of channel surfing (or cueing up your next TiVo segment). You might even use the off switch on your floor lamp if it helps.
Your phone’s ringer and your pager both have off switches, and your mobile phone can be turned off entirely. You do have voice mail, don’t you? Fifteen or 30 minutes’ delay in responding shouldn’t matter in most cases. If it always does, without exception, how do you ever take showers, make love, or sleep?
As if thinking matters
Contemplation—deep thinking—keeps us human. If deep thinking means temporarily reducing your level of technology, maybe that’s a sign. People should control technology as a set of tools. If technology controls people, we cease to be human. Find your off switches. Use them. We all have time to contemplate. We should make that time.
If you saw me staring off into space at the Midwinter Meeting, now you know why. Try it yourself some time.
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