Ever had the somewhat counter-intuitive sensation of relief, when suddenly the paywall of a website popped up and asked you gently to subscribe or go to premium to continue reading / watching / gaming? Relief, because you finally, at this point, have a reason to stop reading and to close your notebook, perhaps taking a deep breath afterwards ... It’s not the first time I hear people sigh with relief that they are not allowed to read further and further, dabbling away another precious day of their life (dabbling: taking a slight and not very serious interest in a subject or try a particular activity for a short period). The digital environment is not easy to navigate when you are lacking the discipline to ATTENUATE. To survive as an organism in any habitat, we need the ability to attenuate the incoming information. If we cannot do that effectively, we run around dazed and confused, we will have no idea what is important, what is relevant, what is dangerous, what is useful, etc. Everything is must have, must do. The digital habitat encourages us to constantly shift our attention to something else, something new, something more or less interesting. Relentlessly. Sounds familiar? Marketing people know this very well, they will provide ever more clickbait, ever more „to be continued“, ever more „click here for further information“, ever more „people who liked this article also liked …“, etc. Beware, our lives as human beings are limited, that’s why they are precious. People die, but on facebook, they are still around, right? In the digital world, it’s always „Game over - Start again!“ So, do yourself a favour after reading this: there are no links here, no further reading - close your laptop, close your eyes, give yourself a break!
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AuthorThomas Behrens Visual Communication is not only taking part in the digital transformation - actively and passively - he will also reflect on it. Hence the blog. Archives
January 2021
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