This morning, as I was silently eating cereal at the table, spoon in one hand and nothing in the other, not even my omnipresent cell phone, I realized I was actually lost in my own thoughts, a phenomenon which had not happened for a long time. I was thinking, actually thinking, all by myself, unaided by scrolling news stories or radio commentary, music lyrics, or television advertisements. That’s when it dawned on me what has happened to the world: WE'VE STOPPED THINKING! The deluge of entertainment has finally engulfed our minds, flooding our consciousnesses and dulling our wits. Predictably, chaos has ensued. Chaos everywhere!
I often think about how natural and quiet the world must have been before Thomas Edison discovered a means of recording sound in 1877. Before the phonograph and the radio, which came along 18 years later, no one on the earth could hear music unless it was being performed live within the range of their own hearing. How remarkable! We’ve become so used to recorded sound that we do not think of it as miraculous, though it is. It is not only miraculous, it is omnipresent.
Before 1877, no one could hear distant voices, except over the telephone, invented only one year earlier. Today we hear music almost everywhere we go. We can hear the same song played the exact same way over and over again, long after its performer has died. We even hear commentaries on sports and politics from people we’ve never met whose voices we nonetheless instantly recognize. We hear jingles that are impossible to forget, though we’d often like to.
I often want entertainment, thought-provoking commentary, and news of events far and wide, but sometimes I think it’s all too much. Sometimes I’m glad that devices can be turned off and I can hear my own thoughts again.
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