The Screen in My Pocket
Distraction in the Viral Age
Damn near ten thousand buzzing flies around,
ICloud updates, Twitter rage, TikTok trends.
Still thousands more lights blazing on my phone.
Talk of war and crime, and ragebait newly found,
Ripe from some algorithm. Still, my face bends
Against the world, down to the screen, that, alone,
Can satisfy a hunger deep, or be a friend,
Til the next throb of light sparks, the next sigh.
I suppose this is what distraction is—
Only hunger deeper than the searching eye,
Near morning, but dragged down to an abyss.
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Trickle Them Down, But Not Out
The thing about smart people is that they should know better, but alas, intelligence is not the same as wisdom. Not only do the mistakes of experts too short on vision—when they are not corrected—have the potential to do great and far-reaching damage, but they also undermine public confidence in the very notion of expertise. This is particularly so when expertise is wielded in defence of the rich and powerful as a cudgel against those laid low. As an academic, this lack of faith in “so-called experts” is painful to see as it plays out in the spread of dis-/misinformation, conspiracy theories, and anti-intellectualism writ large. But it is also an understandable impulse given the catastrophic failure of an economic ideology pushed by certain economic experts. Supply-side economics has shaped a broken system for the last half-century and has arguably done more to undermine the fabric of the American Dream than any policy framework of the past century.
By Cory Wright-Maley5 days ago in Humans
Comments (1)
I really appreciate your very literal take on the Dancing with Distraction Challenge, Steve! Your choice of vernacular and turn of phrase is very pleasing and engaging. I appreciate your descriptive language that painted a well formed imagine as I read the poem, well done!