Monitors and Manipulation: Are you paying attention?

In 1996 David Foster Wallace wrote a 1,079 page novel that made TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. It was a challenging novel to read for more than the obvious reason of it’s length. Perhaps Wallace’s most important and prescient narrative in the slightly futuristic book depicts a movie, called "Infinite Jest", which, in the novel, is so entertaining to its viewers that they lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it at the expense of living their own lives. Their own lives, by comparison, are so comparatively unsatisfactory that people decide to just watch the film over and over and over...until they die.

I think Wallace meant, even as far back as 1996, for it to be a foreshadowing of what to expect. Certainly in the 24 years since the book came out it can be argued that we are moving much closer to the world that Wallace dramatized. I didn’t even own a cell phone in 1996. The term “Smart phone” wasn’t even in use when this book was being conceived. Yes, we are certainly moving in a direction; it’s final turns remain unknown but should be debated. It seems true to say that we are like a snowball going downhill. No one in 1996 envisioned a society where virtually everyone is focusing on their cellphone screens for multiple hours during the day. We are there! "Houston.....".

Screens. Images on screen are a ubiquitous sight in our culture. You can’t go to many restaurants without being in clear view of at least one monitor, usually showing something we worship more than anything: Sports. It’s as if we can’t imagine a physical space where people are gathered where a monitor displaying a game of some kind is not in full view. What a theory: No human experience cannot be improved by adding a monitor that is displaying football.

I went to a gym recently in a suburb of San Diego and there were 9 monitors that were all in plain view from any and all workout equipment. It was virtually impossible not to watch it…like second hand smoke or an ambulance siren. After all, how could anyone expect people to workout in a gym without sports information?

Not very long ago you and me were in control of what information we were exposed to. We could read a newspaper, or not. We could turn on the TV, or not. We could buy a magazine or not. Now, information—all kinds of crazy information, is dropped before our eyes the way a dump truck drops off a load of trash. It’s inescapable. It’s the cost of owning a smartphone or going to a restaurant or gym. What if porn were displayed on monitors in restaurants and gyms. What if porn opened up every time you went on Facebook or did a Google search? It’s easy to make the case that that scenario would not be good. I would make the case that all of the other unsolicited information: Sports, two headed elephants, celebrity purchases and sitings, etc., aren’t quite as negative as porn but they have a strong manipulative impact. It is a zero sum game.

Monitors are ubiquitous, inescapable. They have entered our lives insidiously and we don’t even know how it happened. It has totally changed the way we live. Having a monitor on display says that there is something happening on a monitor that is more important than anything you are doing, whether it be conversation, eating, contemplation,etc..

Imagine that every place you went, any public space, there sat a buffet table of various foods that were all free..they were sugary, high in calories, junk food-like: Cookies, donuts, sodas, buffalo wild wings, beer, chocolates, etc..….it was all there and it was free. And it was in most every space. Under normal circumstances a person plans out their daily meal regimen. You didn’t ask for these foods to be placed in front of your face each and every time you entered a space but they were just there, free, and easy to reach. Would the presence of all of that food not compromise the eating habits of all but the most discriminating and disciplined?

Things happen (to us) that we don’t see unless we are paying very close attention. Very few of us are paying attention and even less are fierce about guarding their autonomy. We drink 36 ounce big gulps not because we demanded them but because someone wanted to make money off of a ridiculous portion size of something we already like. The public didn’t pound the tables asking for 2000 calorie burgers with 3 patties, 3 slices of cheese and chili but marketers thought that if we made it more excessive then many of us would buy it. They were right. 38% of our population is obese (by far the highest % in the world) surely in part because constant access to high calorie foods is always available. Our lives are subjected constantly to an attempt to capture our attention and our dollar. For most of us we are being solicited from the first moments we awake in the morning via smartphone. It’s a bombardment. We are subjected to lurking interests that are starving for our attention and unless we are conscious, sober, and highly discerning we will be taken down a path. We will click, do, think, eat, hear, and view things that were set up for us like a beartrap.

All over the news today:

"Aaron Rodgers and Danica Patrick buy Malibu beach house for 28 million". Is this not inane information. We even get the price of the house. Someone decided that we needed to know these details.

If I go to CNN.com and I scroll down I see a video that has the heading. “Teacher busta move in viral Tik Tok dance videos”. It shows a man dancing. These are constant on our phones. “See what this formerly attractive actress looks like Now. You will be shocked!!” You can’t do anything without being subjected to these solicitations. Were we meant to have access to everything that was recorded across the globe? No doubt, watching a guy on a motorcycle jump off his 3 story apartment building is interesting but there are literally millions of videos on the internet that fit this threshold of interesting. “Watch a python eat a pig”. Youtube has an unlimited amount of content, much of which would qualify as interesting to any random group of Americans. It seems innocent enough…unless you look at the cumulative effect. It’s not likely to be a good thing. It’s death by a thousand cuts.

I had a conversation with a urologist a few months back where the urologist told me about a patient he had who had maintained a very high sex drive into his 80’s. He had recently discovered he had prostate cancer and he was now instructed to take medication which suppressed the production of testosterone, the fuel for cancer cells in the prostate. Without testosterone this man soon lost his constant appetite for sex. He changed dramatically. The man came in for a follow up appointment and he described a feeling that was similar to a freedom. He said that he felt a relief as if he had been released from a burden. He said that he now found himself focusing on things that he never had imagined before. He had room now for creative thoughts. He was taking up painting. His mind was clearer than ever. He said that he listened to women now in a way that he never had before. Wow. I feel badly for him…but I also feel badly for all the women. That was an amazing story. It was a sad story.

We only have so much space in our minds. We only have so much space in our hard drive. People trying to make money are tripping over themselves trying to fill that space in our heads with thoughts and reactions that they can monetize. Facebook is tracking your trends and tastes and it is trying to get your attention so that you will buy more.

Imagine the phone ringing in your house constantly….re-ringing if you don’t pick up….Everyone has our phone number and everyone is calling. Childhood anxiety and depression and suicide have risen to all time highs in the last decade. Social media is among the suspects.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, snapchat, youtube…. Are we paying attention to what is happening.? Is it like the frog that is put in a pot of warm water and he doesn’t notice that the water is getting warmer and warmer until the point where it is boiling and he is powerless to even attempt to jump out. That is how Nazi Germany was able to transform German society into a sociopathic killing machine. Germans were highly cultured and sophisticated. They were among the most educated and erudite cultures in the world at the time of the Nazi uprising. Remember, the German citizens were not asking for world domination and the extermination of 6 million Jews and “undesirables”. Yet, their defenses and there ability to discern toxicity was chloroformed. They became invested accomplices in a matter of a few years. They didn't even know they were being manipulated. It was brilliantly methodical. It had parades and music and graphics and uniforms and highly produced speeches. Nothing was left to chance. Yet, nobody asked any questions.

From Facebook and Google searches we can see that these companies, in order to profit, are illegally invasive in the way they troll and manipulate our personal data. It’s a real problem that is only going to get worse. I have no doubt that ESPN would inject football into our veins if they could find a way to do it. They wouldn’t think twice about installing a microchip in our brains that promotes football 24/7. CNN and all the other media networks would gladly do the same. Television production, cameras, etc.. are so technically amazing these days that you feel like you are a participant in what you are watching. In that way it is more and more like playing a video game. Slow motion and quick editing and seductive soundtracks can put us in a trance. It’s really impressive. It’s addictive. Flat screens are getting bigger and bigger….where does that end? Every wall surface in our house can be a flat screen.

We know that video games can render their participants spellbound. The technological brilliance is stunning. We know that it is just a matter if time before the virtual world, to many people, will be preferable to the real world. In Foster Wallace’s novel he was making just such a prophecy. It will be in HD and in glorious color and Surround Sound. Foster Wallace also predicted there would be virtual sex in many forms, eventually leading to robotic sex partners that are custom designed to meet specific wants. Everyone will be able to go to bed with a cloned Marilyn Monroe, or whomever. Imagine the footprint of that pending reality? Maybe it will reduce sexual violence against women. (A silver lining)

Be mindful….what we expose our eyes and minds to makes a huge difference in who we become in the same way that what we eat will influence our health and wellness. We should not assume, for a second, that because it is available or because a celebrity is promoting it, or because it is on TV or showing at a movie theatre or because you can buy it at a store that it is not harmful, objectionable and detrimental to our physical or mental health. Remember cigarettes?…as available as a cup of coffee…doctors smoked them in their offices with ashtrays at the ready. There were no outcries for almost a century. Remember slavery? It was as normal as having a pet dog. it created no stir. it was a normal part of our culture for 2 centuries. Think of everything the way you think of second hand smoke. We all have to take responsibility for what we allow ourselves to be exposed to, what we ingest.

Think, or someone else will think for you….Think critically and act independently….(guard your sovereignty).

Be prepared to see and experience many stronger attempts to occupy your focus and invade your privacy. Indiscriminate addiction to monitors is the playground for those who would want your money and your mind. In almost all cases it will seem innocent enough…maybe it’s ESPN, or “Keeping up with the Kardashians” or an evangelist or politician or your government. There is no better customer than one who is addicted to the treatment.

David Foster Wallace took his own life in 2008 at the age of 46. He was described by those closest to him as being in a constant battle with depression.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.