Happy Sunday! (At least it was Sunday when I wrote this…)
We’re in a bit of a temporal vortex. Stripped of the cadence of regular life, it’s hard to distinguish between the days of the week or even the time of day.
Our perception of time slows down in an unfamiliar reality. The brain spends more time processing new information, unable to fall back on the normal cues that help us efficiently move through our day.
As Lenin said, "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen."
Time is a funny thing. It can be stretched and compressed in several directions at once, yet it’s the one true constant in our lives.
Let’s spend some of that time on space.
Everywhere is Anywhere
A few weeks ago, I was thinking about our phones’ ability to transport us to different places.
In the smartphone era, any lull in stimulation is temporary.
On the subway? See what your friends have been up to. Waiting in line? Watch your favorite show!
As Seth Godin recently put it:
Something's more interesting than this
And now, that’s always true.
Whatever you’re doing.
No matter who you’re with.
Something, somewhere, is more interesting than this.
And it’s in your pocket.
All the time. As long as the battery lasts.
There’s an alert, a status update, breaking news. There’s a vibration or a text, just waiting. Something. Right now.
Until infinity.
Unless we choose to redefine whatever we’re doing as the thing we’ve chosen to do, right here and right now.
With our phones, we can escape boredom by transcending our physical environment. No matter where we are, our phones can act as a portal.
Almost anything can be done from anywhere.
This means we're capable of not just task-switching, but instantly swapping environments.
When Slack interrupts Netflix, the office invades the theater. When we flip from Twitter to Amazon, the pub becomes the store.
This phenomenon was recently profiled in an Atlantic piece titled "Every place is the same now":
The office is a suitable place for tapping out emails, but so is the bed, or the toilet. You can watch television in the den—but also in the car, or at the coffee shop, turning those spaces into impromptu theaters. Grocery shopping can be done via an app while waiting for the kids’ recital to start. Habits like these compress time, but they also transform space. Nowhere feels especially remarkable, and every place adopts the pleasures and burdens of every other. It’s possible to do so much from home, so why leave at all?
We're a few weeks into taking that challenge literally.
Is it possible to boil life down to the essential elements: Grubhub (food), Netflix (entertainment), Zoom (socialization), and Amazon (household basics)?
Be careful what you wish for.
Screens are not spaces
Here's a joke I just came up with.
Q: How do you tell the difference between happy hour and a birthday party?
A: The title of the Zoom invite
In another time, the difference might be more pronounced. One happens somewhat spontaneously; the other on a specific date, invites sent far ahead of the event. Norms dictate you either bring a gift or pay your friend back next time. Is there alcohol or cake? (Both please.)
Gatherings can't be reduced to a participant list. Context matters.
Zoom does a decent job at approximating socializing, but it works more like a phone call than actually hanging out together. Information can be exchanged, but there's little shared experience beyond being on the call.
Instead of inhabiting a common environment –complete with an ambiance of sounds, smells, and movements in the periphery– we view each other in disparate exhibits. She’s in an elegant home office; he’s in a messy bedroom; you’re at the kitchen table in pajamas.
In some ways, video calls represent the "uncanny valley" of communication. We absorb most of the verbal and non-verbal cues, yet we're not truly together.
As one tweet put it,
The goal is not to share each of our realities with each other, but to share the same reality. It makes more sense to inhabit a completely different world like Animal Crossing than to broadcast the lonely worlds each of us are isolated in.
Hacking Zoom
So, what can we do now? Outside of places like Fortnite and Animal Crossing, we have to create our own environments.
Think about the time you normally spend with people. Chances are you aren’t focusing only on each other. You might not even be facing one another!
You’re eating a meal, taking a ride, watching an event. There’s something that both facilitates and distracts from conversation.
It’s possible to do this on Zoom with some creative screen sharing. Just as teachers share lecture slides over video calls, we can play Codenames online to reimagine game night. (I’m scheduled to play Family Feud with some strangers this week.)
There’s even a browser extension that lets friends sync their Netflix video and group chat for a “Netflix Party”.
I’m excited to discover more creative ways people have powered-up their video calls.
Have any fun ideas? I’ll share my favorites with the group next time.
Media Diet
📰Read
“The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake”: In order to predict the future, you have to understand the past. In last month’s cover story for The Atlantic, David Brooks chronicles the history of the “family unit” and living patterns across the past century. The sociological factors explored touch every part of society: race, gender, religion, wealth… if you’re interested in humans as social animals, it’s a must-read.
📺Watch
Westworld: If you’re bummed about the state of the world we live in, you can distract yourself with some thrilling existential questions: what makes us human? Does free will exist? Will artificial intelligence technology overtake humans, and if so, when? This show is not for passive viewing – the creators make sure to keep you on your toes, and you may need to go back to rewatch some episodes after the twists…
Season three is airing Sundays on HBO. If you get up to date, let’s trade theories about how this all turns out.
🎧Listen
Business Wars: I’ve listened to a few different series of BW, which details the history of iconic companies and their competition. I find the show to be a nice balance between informative and entertaining, and the quasi-fictional dialogue makes it a relaxing listen compared to a dense, fast-paced interview.
I just finished the series on Starbucks vs. Dunkin, but have also done Facebook/Snapchat, Xbox/Playstation, and Coke/Pepsi. There’s likely a show for you.
Tweet of the Week
Thanks for reading!
As always, I welcome feedback and any brainwaves of your own. Just reply to this email.
Until next time,
Mark