An item hits with a ding
Into the cute toy cart at the top of my screen
The shipping will cost too much for only one thing so I tap again
Ring ring
Two items in the cute toy cart at the top of my screen
My chest warms all over will the naughtiness of a rising total but yolo
I may never get this chance again since this sale is once in a season I swear
Accessories slip
Ding ding
Into the top of my screen
And it is like sailing on a skateboard into a storm whooping and swerving past puddles And jetsam on your way to nowhere
I’m ready
I click on the cart to see
My haul and am disappointed to find it cost money
Real cash I make as an uneven trade for time I calculate
How many hours I have to give over to afford this momentary buzz
For the cost of two days I can have what’s made with nimble, adolescent hands
I don’t linger because the high is too good, the time too short and I trade my days
For a bump of something to fill all the places
I am empty that these throwaways
Never fill
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work. We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
David Cain1
We’re constantly is search of connection and disconnection. I have abandoned carts all over, and in each I see some emptiness I’m filling, some aspiration not realized. If it’s just this one little thing, it won’t hurt is the frequent assurance, but the trinkets ring hollow and are soon forgotten. The momentary escape rings hollow as they all do.
What can we do about it, though?
There is no cure. We are here now, irrevocably plugged in with no clear ways to strike a balance between what are essential online resources in everyday life and the ground under our feet. For me, recognizing and naming a phenomenon is the first step to gaining mastery over it. The second is to stay grounded to what’s real and what fills my cup. And if I already know what doesn’t do, then begins the journey to find what will.
What’s next?
A sample for the faves
Feeling heard
Artist collaboration
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Cain, D. (2015, June 22). The real reason for the 40-hour workweek. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-reason-for-the-40-hour-workweek-2014-6
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