When will then be now? Soon.



 I'm on a "now" kick. Not really sure if I'm rejecting the convenience of modernity for the simplicity of traditionalism.

I never considered myself a traditionalist. Truth-be-told, I've always been an early adopter of technology.

I bought my first Vic-20 (predecessor to the Commodore 64) in 1982; the same year I bought my first vinyl album out of my own piggy bank. I started making mix-tapes in the mid-80s, got the Atari in 1986, and sent my first email by 1992. I got my first personal computer and plugged into the internet in 1995. "You've got mail!"

I'm got my first beeper in the 80s and my first cellphone in the mid-90s.

I got a Friendster account, then Myspace, then Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Over the last few years though, I've been pushing away technology; especially with regard to social media.

The noise and silence are just too deafening.

On one hand, you've got the noise. The ever present noise. Endless amounts of anger, hate, and division creating enemies of friends and strangers of family.

On the other, you've got the silence; the open secret that is social media. It's created at present two full generations of narcissists, selling themselves and their wares online for clicks, likes, and follows. Children parading their bodies to the highest bidder, and adults cheering them on in the guise of "empowerment."

We spend hours doomscrolling without using two brain cells. We're fed the perfect little moments of perfect little lives we can never replicate. We'll never be beautiful, smart, or witty enough.

We've fallen off a cliff of victimhood racing toward the bottom. Everyone has a grievance, and when the big ones have already been taken, we simply cut the big grievances into smaller ones where we're all just a series of independent "communities," with as many marginalized slivers as there are members, desperately searching to call out offenses, as if we've got some human right to live our lives without ever being offended.

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Let me ask you. 

*When was the last time you actually "thought?" Like, not letting a party affiliation, community, group, or institution give you the currently approved talking points for. 

*When was the last time you couldn't remember something and didn't reach for your phone to Google it. Or figured out how to do something through reasoning instead of YouTubing it? 

*When was the last time you allowed yourself to be bored, or your mind to wander?

Chances are most of you can't remember. We're a society of "look-at-me." We buy now, pay later. We have everything, but own nothing. We've turned our lives over to subscription services.

- Lately, I've pulled myself more and more off social media platforms for my own mental health.

- Lately, I've forced myself to think through problems. To recall things out of my own memory, and not out of AI's collective memory. Sure, it's a lot slower, but far more meaningful.

- Lately I've listened to a few old albums and tapes because I own them. Not Netflix nor Amazon nor pick a service+. 

- Lately I've actually looked out the windshield and had to remember how to get to places instead of being beholden to a navigation service that tracks every inch you travel for advertising purposes.

- Lately I've written by hand more often. 

- Lately I've sat on the porch more and laughed with my family without us sending each other 500 reels.

- Lately, I've pulled out a classic book I own. Like, made out of paper. And read them. Like, no crap, literally pulling them off-shelves and read them.

- Lately, I've gone places and haven't taken a single photo. I've let my eyes and brain record the moments for free without uploading them to any other cloud than the one God gave me between my ears. 

- Lately I've forgiven myself for failing others and others for failing me (even the ones who weren't sorry). 

- Lately I'm spending more time in the real world; the one very few acknowledge exists anymore. We're easy to spot to each other. We're the only ones not staring blankly into our palms.

Lately I'm on a "now" kick. And I don't want technology to force me to miss it. Because I don't want now to miss me, soon.

Follow me on:

LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevelazquezjr/

On the radio at: Eagle Online Radio

On Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jvthedj

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jv_the_dj/

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