#slowmedia

Maranatha! Our Lord, come!

As we enter the quiet of Advent, we return to the ancient promise and the long road of expectation.

The prophets spoke of a light not yet seen. Generations kept watch in faith—carrying hope through silence, exile, and longing.

In this new work, we follow that path again: Old Testament prophecy, psalms, prayer, and the winter stillness of medieval Silesia, woven together in silent anticipation of the coming Light.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” —Isaiah 9:2 (RSVCE)

Advent begins in stillness. Advent begins in promise.

If you feel drawn to walk this path with us, we invite you to watch the full reflection:

May this Advent bring stillness, clarity, and the first glimmer of the promised Light.

Habits and Change: How I look for new things and growth but can't seem to change myself

I almost missed my flight out of Saigon last night.

If you know me at all, you already know I've done this many times in my life. Being late—and/or being close and sweating—is one of the constant refrains in my life. And every time I notice this familiar melody, I am always like "this definitely needs to change.” But somehow over the years (I remember missing a flight to my job interview when I was 24, and writing a note to myself about never doing it again,) I could never quite get rid of this bad habit.  

(The benefits of?) Trying New Things

I’ve been thinking about habits, and breaking out of routines. Like, how can I habitually break my habits? 

Okay, bear with me. Please. 

I consider myself to be pretty good at being open to trying out new things. Like, over at our Slow Media May group, we are talking about newness and getting out of routines this week, and I’m like, “ah, these are easy. I do it every day already!” I believe in disruption. There’s a lot of benefit to breaking routines and seeing things afresh from time to time, and making yourself doing things that’s uncomfortable is one of the quicker ways to growth. So I take trips for no reason, I try different cafes to work from, go to other people’s parties, ride buses out of curiosity, try new sports (very) occasionally.

But somehow, I noticed recently, I keep finding myself in some emotional and experiential territories there are annoyingly familiar, time and time again. I might be doing something new, but I’m ending up with the same range of experiences. 

What do I mean? Well, when I decide to do something new, this is kind of how it goes, inside: 

Ooh, this is new. I’ll try it! … yes, how interesting! … Dang, this is hard. well, I’m new at it, sure it’s hard. … Am I learning something new? Yes? Yay! … Hm. Is it still interesting? … Am I still learning? … I should do this more often. Yes. A new habit! … Great, another thing to stick in my todo lists … I wonder if buying this gear would help … No, no, I don’t need STUFF! … Wait, what time is it? Oh, no, I need to get back! … Do I need to try that again? 

Am I really getting out of my routines, or am I going through the motion of trying something new? 

Habits vs. Change (and growth) vs. Identity 

I’ve agonized over this notion, too, over the years: How do I make and keep good habits, while getting rid of the bad ones, while still making space for trying new things from time to time? 

There's a tension between doing new things and maintaining habits, good and bad. If breaking habits to do something new is so good, and I’m so good at doing it, how come I can’t change myself entirely, like, to someone who never misses his appointments? 

Replacing bad habits with the good ones is how you change yourself. Sure. But do our habits define ourselves? Would we be the same if we didn’t X no longer? Do habits make us predictable, boring? 

Maybe. 

I don't have the answers. But I keep asking these questions, and I realize—there's this notion and ideal that we in this culture take for granted as fact:

Our ideal self is a collection of our good habits. 

We control our behaviors (and thus the results of our bahaviors, because, if we behave, we should get the rewards, right? Santa?), and we become happy. 

Are these facts? No. They are our beliefs. And sometimes, they are not very helpful. They don’t serve us, because, at least to me, GOOD HABITS MADE PERFECT is boring. It’s not healthy. It’s not sustainable. 

It’s not human. 

What Mindfulness Means to Me

So, are we doomed to live in the never-ending loop of our bad habits, occasionally experiencing the “aha!” of new experiences, by trying out new things? Is it impossible to live near-perfect good habits and be happy ever-after? 

Here’s a new thought that I’ve been coming to recently. What if the point wasn’t controlling WHAT we do or not, but controlling HOW we deal with the consequences? The key, I guess, and as always it seems to be the case, is to NOTICE. As I go through these experiences and reactions that are familiar AND new, I can choose to pay attention, or go into cruise control mode and tune out to something else in my head. 

Publishers, usually the smaller, more nimble start ups, are beginning to really embrace and leverage the opportunities that digital affords. 

Its a hodge podge list, but some recent examples: 

In the 'hyperlocal' trend

Spun delivers geotargeted editorial content. It lets you know quickly whats hot near you, with a stunning UI and experience. 

It aggregates thousands of feeds, from sources in 11 cities (all US at the moment) and publishes them as an interactive cube of 'curated' information, which adds additional data based on your location. Part magazine part toy. 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/spun-city-news/id575348873?mt=8

In the same vien, but without the local angle is Flipboard:

http://flipboard.com/

  In the 'Slow Media' trend

Narratively fights the mass march to short bite size information. Its about long form, well written copy. 

It is Local. Organic. In Depth. 

They explore 1 key theme each week, with one story a day told through long form copy, essays, video and photos. They met their funding target on kickstarter and the content is genuinely interesting and well worth taking time to read. 

http://narrative.ly/

Another example of well written long form copy / nice UI and design is the news resource Quartz

http://qz.com/

  New Technology Impacts

Its  worth looking at innovations with augmented reality. One of the most interesting examples is Layar Creator, which doesn't require a target frame: 

https://vimeo.com/43376093

People are also starting to do fun things with Near Field Communication (nfc). A great example is The Impulse Economy book:

http://www.theimpulseeconomy.com/book/

Which is (I think) the first book that features a smart chip on its cover, that allows smart phones with NFC to access additional information. 

Its quite old now, but worth reminding yourself of the great work Berg did with Bonnier on how digital publishing could evolve. Alot of insight about user experience evolving from the paper to  screen:

Es gibt aktuell erbitterten Widerstand im SpOn- Forum gegen seine These:

"Entschleunigung ist keine Lösung: Einfach mitmachen, und lernen bei Bedarf (Überforderung durch Fortschritt) einfach die Tür zu schließen (abschalten)."

Eine interessante Sichtweise, die ich einerseits teilen kann, andererseits jedoch auch die Einwände gut nachvollziehen kann. Deren Kern besteht überwiegend darin, dass man sich als Individuum auf die beschriebene Weise ja garnicht verhalten könne, da man seinerseits zu stark in die Zwänge seiner Umgebung eingebunden sei. Meist genannt ist dabei natürlich das berufliche Umfeld.

Nimmt man sich einmal einen typischen beruflichen Kontext zur Hand, so sind diese Einwände durchaus nachvollziehbar: Sie sitzen in einem Call- Center, müssen eine Abteilungs-Sammel-Inbox unter LotusNotes mit Beschwerden und Reklamationen abarbeiten. Diese Tätigkeit hat weder einen Anfang noch ein Ende. Es gibt kein Gefühl von "fertig sein". Wenn Sie es nicht schaffen oder aber etwas übersehen, dann wird Ihnen auch noch ein Strick daraus gedreht, da sie nicht "zeitnah" auf Escalations-Mailer reagiert haben. Solche "Versäumnisse" können in Konzernstrukturen sogar zu Abmahnungen führen. Die "gefühlte Bedrohung" durch technischen Fortschritt wird also schlimmstenfalls als existenziell wahr genommen.

Oder aber Sie sind Disponent in einem Transportunternehmen und haben täglich hunderte von eingehenden Anrufen abzuwickeln... Weitere Beispiele ließen sich hier anführen, sicherlich auch jenseits von Sachbearbeiter- Tätigkeiten.

Ich kenne Menschen, die aus solchen Gründen nicht privat per Mail, und nur ganz selten per Telefon erreichbar sind. Die verweigern sich. Wenn bei denen zu Hause das Telefon am Wochenende klingelt, dann "kotzen" die innerlich und gehen nicht ran.

Kann man solchen Menschen jetzt übelnehmen, dass sie sich verweigern? Dass sie "techsick" werden, diese Aversion, hervorgerufen durch technikinduzierte Arbeitsverdichtung, pauschal auf andere fortschrittliche Entwicklungen übertragen? Sich als Fluchtpol "Entschleunigung" wünschen und entsprechend zur "Landlust" greifen, die sich dieser Tage als Projektionsfläche anbiedert? Gereizt und wütend auf Hr.Lobos Thesen reagieren?

Ich denke nicht. Die Wut, die sich in einigen Kommentaren spiegelt, resultiert meines Erachtens nach nicht aus Hr.Lobos Thesen, die durchaus Sinn ergeben, und die in anderen Texten zur "Always On"- Mentalität ähnlich formuliert worden sind, sondern vielmehr aus dessen Haltung: Er postuliert stillschweigend an dieser Stelle eine Entscheidungsfreiheit, die sich die wenigsten Menschen leisten können, oder aber zumindest von der die wenigsten Menschen glauben, dass sie sie sich leisten könnten.

Gegenstand weiterer Betrachtungen sollte also nicht der Umgang mit dem Fortschritt sein, sondern vielmehr die Prämissen unter denen man diesen Umgang überhaupt beschreiben kann, bzw. Empfehlungen aussprechen sollte.