Using Information or Being Used by It
Content
Using information or being used by it
Information is in a first place things we observe around us. For example Tv is a great source of information, or the internet, music, newspappers, photos, books, chats with friends, pannels we see on the side of the road. So, information is everywhere and in any moment we face it, it is offered to us. But should we have an attitude versus information or just receive it when it comes? I’ll come back to this, after we take a closer look at the sources of information The TV offers movies, news, commercials, music. All of them are extremely diverse so they could be to the taste of various people. But if I’m not so divers as the TV is, should I receive all that diversity, should I watch programs without asking myself first „do I have an interest in seeing this? Or is this worthless to me?”. And if it’s worthless and I watch it because I don’t give it any thought to begin with, isn’t this a waste of time and an alteration of the self? Imagine standing on a chair for two hours in a room with no TV or computer or radio and wait for time to pass. How is this different from watching TV for two hours and see only things of no interest? It is even worse, because when I sit in one place without TV or radio I inevitably think about something, judge something, sort the things I have to do next. But when I just watch TV, I let my mind be carried away by those things I see and listen, things that were not searched in particularly by me, so as to have a starting point in my own will. The idea it’s not that TV eats into our time, it’s the way we use it. If I let myself led by the TV, I get with some information after watching it, but that info doesn’t improves me, it is not useful for me. On the other hand, if I watch a certain program because I want to find out some things, so of my own will and I expect something in particularly, the TV serves me, it is useful to me, it answers to questions I had before turning it on. Technology in general is a double-edged sword. It can strike you or your problems, depending on how you lead it or it leads you. In what concerns the alteration of the self by TV. This can happen when I don’ t chose what program I follow according to my preferences, when I turn on the TV just to hear something. Either it’s a music I don’t enjoy, either it’s a movie I dislike, either the news I hear is of no interest to me, everything I take in affects me, it gets a place inside of me, and living like this makes me become a person with no inner harmony. So TV is good and also bad, because it is not only things of value that are presented there. It depends on each of us to filter and chose what is suitable for us. This way, time we’ll be on our side, and wathcing TV will be useful. The Internet is the most common source of information. Surfing the net is even more, it’s a way of spending our spare time, a means of entertainment, a means of communication. Due to this diverse utility we need to be VERY precise in using it, to know very well what we’re going to do when I start de browser, otherwise we will inevitabily end up looking at things we haven’t planned to see, things that will be probably of no use. So we will end up losing time again. It’s easy to see how facebook can eat up our time if we’re not really determined to do some specific things when we go up on facebook. We could wake up wandering on different sites, maybe our curiosity is satisfied, but we will forget the things we saw the moment we get up from the computer. Internet „helps” us to wander from one place to another, because the pages offer information from more domains, so it catches our eye. The simplest way not to end up wandering is knowing very well what do you want from surfing at that moment, so we need to plan our activity on the net.
1
As a way of using spare time, the internet offers videos, music, articles, social networks. In any case our concern should be that our activity brings great interest, joy. If we watch videos, or listen to music, or read something and we have no enthusiasm for doing that, then we lose time again. Another thing to keep when spending our free time is to do something constructive, that makes us better persons. If I watch a video that looks interesting because someone mocks of someone else, this is not a good way of spending my time. The same is if I read tabloid articles. Also, in spending our time on the net it’s important to verify „what I do on the net, could it be done in real life?”. If I play pool, isn’t it better to call a friend and go out playing pool? If watch a movie, isn’t it better to call some friends ang go watch a movie? If I read something of great length, hadn’t I better get the real book? If talk to friends on messenger, facebook, isn’t it better to go visit them? If I look at some photos, isn’t it better if I have the possibility to go see those places? The internet has nothing in itself in the matter of spending free time, it only tries to mimic reality. And if when we afford, when have time, when we can spend our free time in the physical reality, why should we be thankful only with the virtual reality. We end up using time very poor and time is so enormusely valuable, each second could matter a lifetime. One of the most inefficient way of using internet, is virtual communication. People could ask me now: but we need to exchange information, we have projects to do, we need to send our messages to tens, hundreds of people, should I visit each of them at home and talk? No, of course no. BUT, communicating is not just exchanging information, communicating means to connect to your interlocutor, transmit feelings, mood. This in unachievable by internet communication. You cannot watch someone in his eyes on the net. you’ll probabily say that Videochat challenges this, but try for yourself and see if two eyes on the monitor are same as two eyes in front of you. And not the fact that the internet doesn’t offer a communication through all the senses alters the communication, but the fact of not being physically in the same place. Spatial proximity completes the feeling of being next to somebody. Nothing can replace a real hug, a real handshake. We people form our personality, enrich it through communication. We receive information, feelings, wishes, beliefs, mood from people we’re in relation with and our personality gets newer day by day. Also, people we’re in contact with become better or worse, with a deeper understanding on life or with an even narrower one, depending on the influence we have on them. So, there is a continuous exchange of pieces of personality between people. Knowing this, our purpose must be to pick from the others only what’s good like a bee which collects pollen only from good-smelling flowers. This enrichment of the self is not possible through virtual communication, that is a surface communication. So, a person is more beautiful, enchanting if she has strong, sincere and real relations with people. If a person has her social life mainly on the net, we will not find vitality and joy of living at her. We could conclude that the quality of our relations with people shows the degree of joy we have. A similar formula is widely recognized for succes: „the key of succes is the quality of your social relations”. Another talk could be start on „what is succes? Achieving what?”. Music is in the second place a source of information. First of all music conveys feelings, mood, a state of mind. And this influences us more, on a deeper level than simply hearing the lyrics with no melody. The lyrics are important, but more important is the tune to which they are set. Music touches the heart of people, does not only delight their mind. And to me touching their hearts means moving people, making them happy, sad, angry or calm, giving the feeling that you live the life at its best, helping you feel good with yourself, dispelling
2
confusion and bringing a sort of clarity you like, strenghtening your beliefs. It is impossible to cover all that music means in words, it’s like willing to cover what love means through words. That’s how it works when you stop talking about the ra tional things and start talking about the depths of what we call soul, the eternal part in each one of us. You can only have a dim insight into what it really means. Regarding music like this we could ask: all music is the same? Does it matter what music I listen to? And the answer to the first question is a vehement: no! Because there are as many types of music as there are feelings and that there are as many kinds of music as there are beliefs. The answer to the second question is a decided: yes! Because you cannot make honey from dirt, you need pollen, the same goes for the joy of each of us: you need what satisfies you, not what satisfies others. Another question could be raised: is there any objective view on what is the honey of people’s hearts? And in this case those who have found it have the real joy and those who stopped at something else live an illusion; or each one can build a joy by himself and he’ll have the same good feeling towards himself as other one who chose the opposite way of being, considering this represents him, and I repeat, the joy to be the same, although these two live opposite lives? How could we have acces to an answer when everyone judges, sees and feels about things through his own eyes and heart? What could be common to all of us that offers an objective, undeniable truth? This common thing is love. But even the word love has so manny meanings: you could love your familly, your friends, love your work, love the music you listen to, love chocolate, love sleeping, love travelling. I want to refer to a specific kind of love: the love for the others because they are a part of us and loving them makes us all a whole, makes us strongly connected to one another and gives the feeling that I don’t live for myself, that I live toghether with others. Why is this being together an objective view of people? Because no matter what way of life we people chose: either earning a living playing a sort of music, deeply in love with footbal, dedicated to a profession, devoted to reading, dancing, clubbing, we all want to do these things with someone else, we don’t want to be alone. So, given that the thing common to all of us is „living a life of relation” we can further ask: what kind of being together with others is the best? What kind of a relation life brings a real sense of fulfilment to people? And the answer is: that way of being together where the connection between people is the strongest, where each one feels the others connected to himself. And the strongest bonds are created only by love. We started from what offers an objective view of „the real honey of people’s hearts” and we got to: this honey is love. Furthermore we could ask: where do we find love at its best? Answering this we’ll live our lives to the utmost potential, there will be nothing else beyond this to accomplish in a lifetime. I got to a point when it’s necessary to remember the question about the music: should we make a selection? And if the answer is yes, based on what criteria? That’s way I started the talk about the objective view, to bring that general „honey of the hearts” and apply it to the narrower domain of the music we listen to. So, what music conveys love at its best? Is it the rock? No way, that is a music of anger, hate and losing control of yourself. Is it classical music? Maybe. There are works that convey joy, like the 9th Simphony of Beethven (Ode to joy). But not all opera does this. Is it pop? Maybe. The pop songs are so diverse, they offer quite the whole range of feelings. Is it folk music? Maybe. But here the range of feelings transmitted is also diverse. The ideea is to make a selection and choose the music that builds love inside of you and avoid the music that demolishes you.
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We said that music touches in the first place the heart and afterwards the mind. How is the mind touched? Through short messages, with a deep meaning that are accepted by us as values, landmarks in our life. Music strengthens beliefs, but that music which is listened to by choice, wished in the mind before we hit „play” . If we listen to music just as a background noise, then it will not be useful and even more, because we don’t care to o much what song is played, we could be influenced by songs which bring some dark thoughts to our mind. Going further, the next source of information are the newspapers. We know that they are also diverse, the articles they contain are about all the possible topics. In reading newspapers each of us chooses what he likes. This is not sufficient to spend your time in a worthwhile manner. It also depends on what we’re reading. For example, I consider tabloid articles as not only without any use, but also harmful for our mind, because: if I’m eager to find out who married whom, what fights took place between public figures, in what embarrassing postures public figures were caught, then that’s what represents me and I will act out a tabloid story in my social relations. I will love gossip, spreading bad news about friends, I won’t be a trustworthy person. Loving scandal articles shows also the lack of aspiration for the good and the beautiful. A person like this will not be enchanting, charming, but with a flat personality. Another source of information are photos. We can encounter them very seldom as printed photographs, but mainly in a virtual form, on our computer. And the place where we commonly check for photos is Facebook. It’s not a worse thi ng to upload photos on your profile so who sees your profile can form an impression of what kind of person you are. But what can be said about those who upload photos to gain popularity within the virtual comunity, to be appreciated through those photos by the others? We will say it is a false satisfaction. The ego is a bit delighted, but not feeding our ego will makes us happier, better persons. On the contrary you will notice that people who build an atmosphere of joy, enthusiasm and vitality around them have the least wish for fame. Feeding the ego will make us unbearable for the others, we won’t be a real support for friends, at the slightest need we’ll leave them behind. But what can be told about those who are so eager to see what’s new on everybody’s else profile? We’ll say they wish to be a part of others people’s life, to have a piece from the others, it is a wish to own others. This is contrary to what brings love: willing to enrich others, to offer your strength and your goodwill to them. In what concerns books, these are the most valuable source of information, because they offer a deep perspective on all sorts of problems. This depth in understanding the world is not to be found on TV, on the internet or in other places. But is every book good to be read? because they come in an extraordinary variety... I think not. In reading also we need to make a selection, selection we make when we come in contact with information, wherever the source. It’s like food: you don’t eat everything is put on your plate, you choose only what’s good. So, it’s preferable to read books that build you, that bring the honey of the heart, which is love. It is important to be careful in reading because the fundamentals of personality can be changed by reading a single book. Through the words above I tried to show that the world around us offers plenty of things to do, to keep our minds busy. Everyday information from TV and the internet mainly offers ways of life, values to follow in our lives. But all these sources of information are outside the self and try to make the self take them in, so they will get to define it. What is there to do, when from the exterior come so many and diverse ways? Each of us has to search within, in
4
his own heart and with his heart measure the surounding reality and not measure himself by the surounding reality.
5
Information is in a first place things we observe around us. For example Tv is a great source of information, or the internet, music, newspappers, photos, books, chats with friends, pannels we see on the side of the road. So, information is everywhere and in any moment we face it, it is offered to us. But should we have an attitude versus information or just receive it when it comes? I’ll come back to this, after we take a closer look at the sources of information The TV offers movies, news, commercials, music. All of them are extremely diverse so they could be to the taste of various people. But if I’m not so divers as the TV is, should I receive all that diversity, should I watch programs without asking myself first „do I have an interest in seeing this? Or is this worthless to me?”. And if it’s worthless and I watch it because I don’t give it any thought to begin with, isn’t this a waste of time and an alteration of the self? Imagine standing on a chair for two hours in a room with no TV or computer or radio and wait for time to pass. How is this different from watching TV for two hours and see only things of no interest? It is even worse, because when I sit in one place without TV or radio I inevitably think about something, judge something, sort the things I have to do next. But when I just watch TV, I let my mind be carried away by those things I see and listen, things that were not searched in particularly by me, so as to have a starting point in my own will. The idea it’s not that TV eats into our time, it’s the way we use it. If I let myself led by the TV, I get with some information after watching it, but that info doesn’t improves me, it is not useful for me. On the other hand, if I watch a certain program because I want to find out some things, so of my own will and I expect something in particularly, the TV serves me, it is useful to me, it answers to questions I had before turning it on. Technology in general is a double-edged sword. It can strike you or your problems, depending on how you lead it or it leads you. In what concerns the alteration of the self by TV. This can happen when I don’ t chose what program I follow according to my preferences, when I turn on the TV just to hear something. Either it’s a music I don’t enjoy, either it’s a movie I dislike, either the news I hear is of no interest to me, everything I take in affects me, it gets a place inside of me, and living like this makes me become a person with no inner harmony. So TV is good and also bad, because it is not only things of value that are presented there. It depends on each of us to filter and chose what is suitable for us. This way, time we’ll be on our side, and wathcing TV will be useful. The Internet is the most common source of information. Surfing the net is even more, it’s a way of spending our spare time, a means of entertainment, a means of communication. Due to this diverse utility we need to be VERY precise in using it, to know very well what we’re going to do when I start de browser, otherwise we will inevitabily end up looking at things we haven’t planned to see, things that will be probably of no use. So we will end up losing time again. It’s easy to see how facebook can eat up our time if we’re not really determined to do some specific things when we go up on facebook. We could wake up wandering on different sites, maybe our curiosity is satisfied, but we will forget the things we saw the moment we get up from the computer. Internet „helps” us to wander from one place to another, because the pages offer information from more domains, so it catches our eye. The simplest way not to end up wandering is knowing very well what do you want from surfing at that moment, so we need to plan our activity on the net.
1
As a way of using spare time, the internet offers videos, music, articles, social networks. In any case our concern should be that our activity brings great interest, joy. If we watch videos, or listen to music, or read something and we have no enthusiasm for doing that, then we lose time again. Another thing to keep when spending our free time is to do something constructive, that makes us better persons. If I watch a video that looks interesting because someone mocks of someone else, this is not a good way of spending my time. The same is if I read tabloid articles. Also, in spending our time on the net it’s important to verify „what I do on the net, could it be done in real life?”. If I play pool, isn’t it better to call a friend and go out playing pool? If watch a movie, isn’t it better to call some friends ang go watch a movie? If I read something of great length, hadn’t I better get the real book? If talk to friends on messenger, facebook, isn’t it better to go visit them? If I look at some photos, isn’t it better if I have the possibility to go see those places? The internet has nothing in itself in the matter of spending free time, it only tries to mimic reality. And if when we afford, when have time, when we can spend our free time in the physical reality, why should we be thankful only with the virtual reality. We end up using time very poor and time is so enormusely valuable, each second could matter a lifetime. One of the most inefficient way of using internet, is virtual communication. People could ask me now: but we need to exchange information, we have projects to do, we need to send our messages to tens, hundreds of people, should I visit each of them at home and talk? No, of course no. BUT, communicating is not just exchanging information, communicating means to connect to your interlocutor, transmit feelings, mood. This in unachievable by internet communication. You cannot watch someone in his eyes on the net. you’ll probabily say that Videochat challenges this, but try for yourself and see if two eyes on the monitor are same as two eyes in front of you. And not the fact that the internet doesn’t offer a communication through all the senses alters the communication, but the fact of not being physically in the same place. Spatial proximity completes the feeling of being next to somebody. Nothing can replace a real hug, a real handshake. We people form our personality, enrich it through communication. We receive information, feelings, wishes, beliefs, mood from people we’re in relation with and our personality gets newer day by day. Also, people we’re in contact with become better or worse, with a deeper understanding on life or with an even narrower one, depending on the influence we have on them. So, there is a continuous exchange of pieces of personality between people. Knowing this, our purpose must be to pick from the others only what’s good like a bee which collects pollen only from good-smelling flowers. This enrichment of the self is not possible through virtual communication, that is a surface communication. So, a person is more beautiful, enchanting if she has strong, sincere and real relations with people. If a person has her social life mainly on the net, we will not find vitality and joy of living at her. We could conclude that the quality of our relations with people shows the degree of joy we have. A similar formula is widely recognized for succes: „the key of succes is the quality of your social relations”. Another talk could be start on „what is succes? Achieving what?”. Music is in the second place a source of information. First of all music conveys feelings, mood, a state of mind. And this influences us more, on a deeper level than simply hearing the lyrics with no melody. The lyrics are important, but more important is the tune to which they are set. Music touches the heart of people, does not only delight their mind. And to me touching their hearts means moving people, making them happy, sad, angry or calm, giving the feeling that you live the life at its best, helping you feel good with yourself, dispelling
2
confusion and bringing a sort of clarity you like, strenghtening your beliefs. It is impossible to cover all that music means in words, it’s like willing to cover what love means through words. That’s how it works when you stop talking about the ra tional things and start talking about the depths of what we call soul, the eternal part in each one of us. You can only have a dim insight into what it really means. Regarding music like this we could ask: all music is the same? Does it matter what music I listen to? And the answer to the first question is a vehement: no! Because there are as many types of music as there are feelings and that there are as many kinds of music as there are beliefs. The answer to the second question is a decided: yes! Because you cannot make honey from dirt, you need pollen, the same goes for the joy of each of us: you need what satisfies you, not what satisfies others. Another question could be raised: is there any objective view on what is the honey of people’s hearts? And in this case those who have found it have the real joy and those who stopped at something else live an illusion; or each one can build a joy by himself and he’ll have the same good feeling towards himself as other one who chose the opposite way of being, considering this represents him, and I repeat, the joy to be the same, although these two live opposite lives? How could we have acces to an answer when everyone judges, sees and feels about things through his own eyes and heart? What could be common to all of us that offers an objective, undeniable truth? This common thing is love. But even the word love has so manny meanings: you could love your familly, your friends, love your work, love the music you listen to, love chocolate, love sleeping, love travelling. I want to refer to a specific kind of love: the love for the others because they are a part of us and loving them makes us all a whole, makes us strongly connected to one another and gives the feeling that I don’t live for myself, that I live toghether with others. Why is this being together an objective view of people? Because no matter what way of life we people chose: either earning a living playing a sort of music, deeply in love with footbal, dedicated to a profession, devoted to reading, dancing, clubbing, we all want to do these things with someone else, we don’t want to be alone. So, given that the thing common to all of us is „living a life of relation” we can further ask: what kind of being together with others is the best? What kind of a relation life brings a real sense of fulfilment to people? And the answer is: that way of being together where the connection between people is the strongest, where each one feels the others connected to himself. And the strongest bonds are created only by love. We started from what offers an objective view of „the real honey of people’s hearts” and we got to: this honey is love. Furthermore we could ask: where do we find love at its best? Answering this we’ll live our lives to the utmost potential, there will be nothing else beyond this to accomplish in a lifetime. I got to a point when it’s necessary to remember the question about the music: should we make a selection? And if the answer is yes, based on what criteria? That’s way I started the talk about the objective view, to bring that general „honey of the hearts” and apply it to the narrower domain of the music we listen to. So, what music conveys love at its best? Is it the rock? No way, that is a music of anger, hate and losing control of yourself. Is it classical music? Maybe. There are works that convey joy, like the 9th Simphony of Beethven (Ode to joy). But not all opera does this. Is it pop? Maybe. The pop songs are so diverse, they offer quite the whole range of feelings. Is it folk music? Maybe. But here the range of feelings transmitted is also diverse. The ideea is to make a selection and choose the music that builds love inside of you and avoid the music that demolishes you.
3
We said that music touches in the first place the heart and afterwards the mind. How is the mind touched? Through short messages, with a deep meaning that are accepted by us as values, landmarks in our life. Music strengthens beliefs, but that music which is listened to by choice, wished in the mind before we hit „play” . If we listen to music just as a background noise, then it will not be useful and even more, because we don’t care to o much what song is played, we could be influenced by songs which bring some dark thoughts to our mind. Going further, the next source of information are the newspapers. We know that they are also diverse, the articles they contain are about all the possible topics. In reading newspapers each of us chooses what he likes. This is not sufficient to spend your time in a worthwhile manner. It also depends on what we’re reading. For example, I consider tabloid articles as not only without any use, but also harmful for our mind, because: if I’m eager to find out who married whom, what fights took place between public figures, in what embarrassing postures public figures were caught, then that’s what represents me and I will act out a tabloid story in my social relations. I will love gossip, spreading bad news about friends, I won’t be a trustworthy person. Loving scandal articles shows also the lack of aspiration for the good and the beautiful. A person like this will not be enchanting, charming, but with a flat personality. Another source of information are photos. We can encounter them very seldom as printed photographs, but mainly in a virtual form, on our computer. And the place where we commonly check for photos is Facebook. It’s not a worse thi ng to upload photos on your profile so who sees your profile can form an impression of what kind of person you are. But what can be said about those who upload photos to gain popularity within the virtual comunity, to be appreciated through those photos by the others? We will say it is a false satisfaction. The ego is a bit delighted, but not feeding our ego will makes us happier, better persons. On the contrary you will notice that people who build an atmosphere of joy, enthusiasm and vitality around them have the least wish for fame. Feeding the ego will make us unbearable for the others, we won’t be a real support for friends, at the slightest need we’ll leave them behind. But what can be told about those who are so eager to see what’s new on everybody’s else profile? We’ll say they wish to be a part of others people’s life, to have a piece from the others, it is a wish to own others. This is contrary to what brings love: willing to enrich others, to offer your strength and your goodwill to them. In what concerns books, these are the most valuable source of information, because they offer a deep perspective on all sorts of problems. This depth in understanding the world is not to be found on TV, on the internet or in other places. But is every book good to be read? because they come in an extraordinary variety... I think not. In reading also we need to make a selection, selection we make when we come in contact with information, wherever the source. It’s like food: you don’t eat everything is put on your plate, you choose only what’s good. So, it’s preferable to read books that build you, that bring the honey of the heart, which is love. It is important to be careful in reading because the fundamentals of personality can be changed by reading a single book. Through the words above I tried to show that the world around us offers plenty of things to do, to keep our minds busy. Everyday information from TV and the internet mainly offers ways of life, values to follow in our lives. But all these sources of information are outside the self and try to make the self take them in, so they will get to define it. What is there to do, when from the exterior come so many and diverse ways? Each of us has to search within, in
4
his own heart and with his heart measure the surounding reality and not measure himself by the surounding reality.
5
