Too much choice?
Don’t you love multi-tasking? You can get so much more done if you do everything all at once: it’s not that uncommon to find me doing homework while listening to music and watching a muted sports event and talking on the cell phone to whoever happens to call. But I’ve got to wonder sometimes…is all this multi-tasking damaging the quality of some of my work? Will attention spans shrink until we can no longer take the time to focus on just one thing for a solid hour?
Lately I’ve been finding myself drawn to activities that require isolated focus: running, playing piano, reading. Sometimes it’s a relief to get away from being so connected. I think our main problem is that we have so many choices to make constantly! Will I listen to music on my computer, Ipod, or cd player? What will I listen to? What will I watch, and for how long, and what should I tivo while I’m watching something else? Maybe a blog is the wrong place to bring this up, but isn’t it funny that we neglect talking to people face to face because we can do it so easily online? And it’s not just technology, either– just take a Starbucks visit for an example: tall, grande, venti, non-fat, sugar free, flavored, decaf….I could go on forever.
In his book Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber suggests that although “the ideology of choice seems to liberate the body, it fatally constricts the possiblity of real freedom for the soul.” Having 16 choices to make means that we no longer have the freedom to NOT choose. Barber suggests that the widening of individual consumer choice actually shrinks those choices for communities. For example, the consumer’s ability to choose between scores of vehicles mandates a society of suburbia and pollution and traffic jams. No one really chose that; it just happened, and now the inevitable daily commute dictates countless lives. Barber writes, “This politics of commodity offers a superficial expansion of options within a determined frame in return for surrendering the right to determine the frame.”
Oh, the irony of life. What is this plethora of freedom of choice doing to our society?
Driving me bloody well insane. See you in the Alps.
It seems to me that our entire history as human beings is a history of ever expanding choices. I’m not sure if that is a result of progress or if we label expanding choices as progress, but both seem to be happening.
Choice results from liberalism, tolerance, technology, and education.
What is the alternative to expanding choices? Can you really ever have “the freedom NOT to choose?” I am not sure about that.
A related post: The Paradox of Choice.
“What is this plethora of freedom of choice doing to our society?”
By “our society” do you mean the US or other developed countries?
I really don’t think the majority of the world has this freedom of choice that you speak of.
David: I’m not entirely sure that it was ever possible to NOT choose something, but what I was picturing was being able to go to the store to get bread, milk, and eggs, and what you purchase is exactly that. It’s like in the comic strips when their food is labelled “bread.”
Gino: I meant our society’s shortening attention span, specifically, but I think it can be applied to other countries as well. Barber talks about how the IMF has pushed free markets onto developing countries who weren’t ready for them, and their economies have crumbled. He says the capacity of individual [developing] states to regulate their own economies is weakened in favor of the greater good of internationally distributed products.
Developing countries may not have 26 different brands of toothpaste on Walmart shelves like we do, but I think they’ve got a lot more choices than they used to have. That’s not always a good thing for a country that isn’t ready for it.
Don DeLillo explores the curious notion of generic products in his fantastic novel <>. I really don’t want to say much more about it because I want everyone in the world to read it. Generic food isn’t the focus of the novel, but it’s important nonetheless.
Apparently it cut out the title of novel, it’s White Noise.
I’m so glad you brought that up– I read White Noise three years ago and I had forgotten about that delightful part. What a powerful novel.
Gore Vidal calls it the United States of Amnesia.
“Barber talks about how the IMF has pushed free markets onto developing countries who weren’t ready for them, and their economies have crumbled.”
Its not free markets if it is forced. The IMF is not good for the people.
Personally I like choice. What’s wrong with 26 brands of toothpaste?
I can see the absurdity, but there are some logical reasons for having options with certain products like housing and vehicles.
If you are talking about how and where resources are allocated, then that is another matter entirely.
“For example, the consumer’s ability to choose between scores of vehicles mandates a society of suburbia and pollution and traffic jams.”
Well now the choice is to drive or not to drive? To pollute or not pollute so much. I’m not sure we can have a pollutionless world just yet. (Kinda like violence)
This is a great topic because it can segway into a bunch of topics.
I mean, this is the whole problem with government. What choice does anyone have about that? The government has a monopoly on the use of force!
Don’t I wish there were at least some choice involved here!
I say privatize everything.
“This politics of commodity offers a superficial expansion of options within a determined frame in return for surrendering the right to determine the frame.”
Ah, such is life. And reality. I mean, we can’t live in dreamworld. But we can have different perspectives. There are a ton of places to live on the earth. You don’t get to choose where you are born, but you may have the choice of where you want to live.
“I say privatize everything.”
Yeah, that’s the answer…..(read sarcasm).
here’s a decent example or two regarding the environment.
http://commonsblog.org/archives/cat_private_conservation.php
http://www.perc.org/
here’s a map of land that the US government has appropriated and expropriated
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/natlas/Natlasstart.asp
I like people deciding for me….(read sarcasm)
So you intentionally ignored the second part of the code as well as my reference to state constitutions? Who do you think makes up the militia? That would be the people. If you’re going to mix terms, you’re going to have to come up w/ justification to
do so.
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
—Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
Remember. In Miller, there was NO QUESTION as to Miller being part of the Militia. It was considered automatic.
kcross.
i have experienced the same frustrations of course. having so many options. how to choose? right now i am working on a piece of land that was relatively “raw”. I have had to cut down trees, move dirt and rocks, and overall design a homestead. There are many things to consider. And it all comes down to purpose and vision with respect to this project. How much time and energy is each project worth? There is much work I can do myself, it just costs me time. And there is much I can’t do. There is no guideline to follow per se. Basically I am bound by feasibility, zoning laws, and sound construction. It has to be built to serve a purpose.
In so far as attention deficit is concerned. I do get fed up at times. There is so much to do and so little time it seems. On the one hand you can only do one thing at a time, and yet, one finds oneself actually forced to multi-task because of time constraints. Or one forces oneself to cram so that there is time to spare at some other point. It’s all about economizing. That’s really what it comes down to. Time is money, as they say. And its so true. It is limited, and the ways to spend it are limitless. So it all comes down to choice and economy.
No one said it would be easy right?! LoL
There are different ways to go. So what do you want to do? And how will you get it? Is it worth your time and effort?
I have hours of podcasts that I wil never get time to listen all of them though I’d like to. I would love to spend more time outside in the yard or traveling. I would essentially love to do everything!! But of course, it’s the important things in each of our lives that are everything.
And the journey continues. LoL.
Fun fun fun.