From Leaves of Grass:
The past and present wilt — I have fill’d them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
minute longer.)Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.
Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through
with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too
late?52
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my gab and my loitering.I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
Uncle Walty captures the natural and upsetting equivocation that makes me what I am.Here are two articles that touch upon this contradition very deeply.
Andrew Sullivan: My Distraction Sickness – and Yours
And this one as very well,
Journalist’s Toolbox | A Society of Professional Journalists Blog
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I see a lot of myself in Andrew Sullivan’s article. I keep trying to pull contacts and friends from the constantly expanding universe of online interactions into a smaller network of people who share a common purpose and/or a common history (family, fraternity, student/volunteers of program’s I’ve led, peers leading other programs, etc.)
I point to the cMOOC format over and over because it provides an organized structure for like-mined people to find and connect and interact with each other.
Unfortunately, I’ve no real way of knowing, or measuring who, among all of those I’d like to be interacting with, are actually on-line with an intent of finding and interacting with me.
Or, if they are on-line at all.
Which means that my almost 20 years of online network building has caused me to miss out on off-line relationship building with many who are important to me.
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Always, always thoughtful in reading, Daniel. I hope you know how rare you are. I think this is absolutely brilliant realization. I have been exploring ‘echo chambers’ and ‘filter bubbles’ of late. Your insight is one I need to ponder. I need to figure out how to shift position enough to see another pov. This is what Nick Sousanis calls unflattening. Easy said, not easy done. Thanks, for jostling me from off the bubble.