PROGRESS SEEMS TO MEAN : A STREAM OF TASTELESS INVENTIONS TO UNITE THE HERD

Yesterday while scanning the front page of the Guardian website, my eyes caught sight of an opinion piece titled, I loved the honesty of Tinder – then I met Mr No Sex Before Marriage. Against my better judgment, and having already read the more significant articles on the page, I clicked on the Tinder piece, just to have something stupid to deride in that free moment I had.

I love the honesty of myself, which is why I can say without hesitation that a lot of online dating sites or apps like Tinder are there for specific types of people. And by specific types I mean certain adjectives that could accurately describe the sheep-mentality of those who will try anything just because it's available to do. The entire concept of posting a picture of yourself, photoshopped selfies or not, in a public sphere, and in hopes that someone will decide that you are attractive enough to "try on" like shoes ordered online, is frightening. It's a generation of disposable dating. Swipe, swipe, swipe, move on to the next one selling themselves. It's the greatest deception in that one can find real companionship by flipping through a catalogue of like minded people. Actually, that makes sense. Like minded people on apps like Tinder will find something in common with eachother. Like prefering convenience, and quantity over quality. 

I heard a story once, of a Western Muslim man visiting the Sahara desert to meet some Bedouin. One night, the man and his friend brought a Bedouin back to the shelter they were staying in. A television was on in a corner of the room. Upon seeing it, the Bedouin quickly turned his head away. You have never seen a television before, the Westerner remarked to him. Aren't you curious to experience it? The Bedouin replied, I have heard there are bad things in them, and I don't want to let them into my heart.

Why is that a great story? It is unique and meaningful. I often think the Bedouin's response sums up how the vast majority of people are dismissive of what they allow themselves to absorb. How does something affect your well-being? Your respect for self? Your conscience? Your autonomy? Your values?

The vapid article itself says a lot about the narcissism involved in the social networking/dating craze in recent times. The writer, an avid Tinder user who rattles off a number of requirements in order for a guy on Tinder to be approved by her, and who is also in therapy (like most Americans) writes, "what was great about Tinder was the lack of risk. Not having to face my crippling social phobia and fear of rejection is the appealing factor here." Yes, if it's one thing we know it's that people are now more comfortable communicating with others through a screen, grasping onto a false sense of intimacy. Through a screen, your true flaws are veiled, airbrushed, nonexistant. A person becomes distorted and misleading. And when you lose a grip on reality, and the self, you become soulless, and forget how to truly live as a human being. Hence, the drugs, the depression, the loss of control. The inflated sense of self people like the writer possess is a bit of a paradox. She has a checklist in which she judges people on an app that can best be equated to scrounging for fast food in a dumpster, and then complains about having no luck in meeting the right person.

This comment in the discussion section of the article sums it all up plainly :

" Life is so vacuous isn't it? To have to resort to such means for what? Really there must be more to life than just finding ways like this to entertain yourself until the end. "

HOW BAD IDEAS WILL DESTROY US ALL

It's hard to visit a city in the United States nowadays and not see people partaking in a segway tour. In other words, the usual mundanity of sightseeing through a city on foot, with both your hands free to access your camera for spontaneous photography is no longer an issue. Now there is the luxury of paying to look stupid while propelling one's self on a "personal transportation vehicle," a term conceived by Segway's unrepentant marketing team, no doubt, as you gaze to your left or right to take in the sights and try not to crash face first into concrete.

You know what else can be considered a "personal transportation vehicle?" A car. Particularly one driven by an individual looking to transport themselves from one destination to another. Even a motorcycle. Or an electric bicycle.

"Experience the future of personal mobility today" the company encourages, most likely targeting a niche market of gullible consumers. The same ones who spend money on a Comfort Pillow with Built-in Speaker. Or lonely single people who resort to cuddling inanimate objects :

The boyfriend pillow seen above would be really sad if I didn't bother to mention, for the sake of being fair, Japan's dakimakura culture of loving pillows with anime girls emblazoned on them. In the case of Japan's otaku, those who sacrifice their social life for gaming and tech interests should be able to experience relationships just like everyone else, one could argue. It does raise important questions of the philosophical kind, which, it seems, does not occur to those who think up these inventions. 

The innovations of the modern age are not genius, they are merely exploitative solutions created for those who are unable to function at society's standards of "normal," but not due to natural issues experienced by everyone, including insecurity and awkwardness. It's a chain of events that the technological age has triggered, spawning a generation of self-handicapped beings who need the world to adapt to their needs, instead of improving themselves to adapt to the world.

As bad ideas continue to be made into saleable products and services by people with a short-sighted view of longterm effects, all for the goal of making a profit off of human weakness, the future looms in a sinister light. With the advent of robots and more technological innovations, human beings won't just depend on electronics to fulfill their needs, but will, and many have, become machines themselves. As José Saramago noted, we will know less and less what it means to be human.

FISHTOWN AND SANDWICH REVIEW

I've decided I can't stand this particular area of Philadephia. Maybe it's the overbearing whiteness, it being a hipster enclave, the overall mundanity, or all of the above that makes it unbearable for me, even if just to have lunch for an hour. 

The sandwich we shared at La Colombe headquarters was good, but not worth heading back to Fishtown for.

I was trying to think which part of Boston I would compare Fishtown to, but then remembered that all of Boston is white and mundane.

I WON'T PRETEND TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ART

But this photo I took while walking over the bridge in the Public Gardens makes me think of Impressionism, the only movement I care for, and the paintings of the great Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet. For no other reason than the fact that Pissarro painted a lot of trees, and Monet always had water in his works, plus that Japanese bridge. 

It's almost strange that a group of painters with diverse styles were largely shunned by the art institutions and critics at the time for attempting to break from convention and opting to paint the ordinary, depicting life in the moment, and with intensity of color. Simply painting what they saw right in front of them made the Impressionists a revolutionary movement that would pave the way for modernist art. Go figure.

I had to stop and appreciate the view on that cold afternoon, as such moments can be fleeting.

BLIZZARD

Beribu bintang di langit kini menghilang, meraba aku dalam kelam.

Pudar ilhamku tanpa arah.

- - -

Thousands of stars in the sky now disappeared, I groped in the dark.

My inspiration fades without direction.