The Mansion Wall Project continues, we put up a landscape from the artist Rachel Barlow (which she donated). Barbara loves it and says thank you. Next room will be the wall in Peggie’s room. Maybe something with some red in it. Not sure how many more rooms there are, but I’ll figure it out.
Maria calls Fate The Baby Monster, and it is a wonderful name for her. She is a monster, full of love and energy and mischief. Everything is her business,she wants to know everything that is going on. She runs back and forth like a demon all day, she is never still until about 8 p.m. when she keels over and sleeps for many hours.
When she wants to make some trouble she searches me out wherever I am and gives me the Pirate Eye. Maria says I love mixing it up with her and have made her a Baby Monster. I confess I love the idea, today she came to show me her ice whiskers, of which she very proud. She tried to lure me away from my work, but failed.
If you haven’t noticed, there is a shiny new “donate” button at the bottom of every blog post, it is five or six days old It is important. It proves the blog readers with a new way of contributing to the blog. It was designed at the request of many of you who wish to support the blog, but don’t have the resources or the desire to do so regularly.
I didn’t quite figure out how to offer it until now. As always, no money or financial information is stored on my site, it is very secure, and you can contribute via Paypal or major credit cards.
Please check out the donate page, it is important, especially this year when we are doing so many new and different things. The blog is expensive to maintain, and I work every day on my words and photos. I’ve given away more than 40,000 free photographs, I don’t watermark or copyright my work. Cameras and lenses are expensive. If you like or use the photos, they will always be free, but give a thought to contributing in exchange for them, even once in awhile.
My blog gets millions of visits a year, but very few people contribute to it, so there’s room to grow, and I want to keep my photography and blog moving forward. So if you use and like it, think about supporting my work. It matters, on so many levels. We all need to be paid for our work.
Now you can help by making a one-time donation in any amount you wish. The voluntary payment program remains in place as is for those good people who can and wish to make regular subscription payments. The blog is also and will always be free to those who can’t afford to contribute, your donations and payments help make that possible.
Thanks for considering this, every donation helps. If you prefer, you can also contribute by sending a check to Bedlam Farm, c/o P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. And thank you.
I’m in the middle of a powerful, even ground-breaking book titled Irresistible: The Rise Of Addictive Technology And The Business Of Keeping Us Hooked, by Adam Alter, an author and professor of marketing at NYU’s Stern Business School.
I have to say the book itself is addictive, I had trouble putting it down and it made me rethink some of my own life and habits and change some others. Addictive behaviors have always been around, but as Stern points out, “in recent years they’ve become more common, harder to resist and more mainstream.”
And the ability of programmers and software developers to learn how hook us on in very personal ways on these machines is Orwellian. And chilling. They know how to make us feel good and how to turn us into a new kind of social and behavioral addict. They are profoundly affecting our human relationships, understanding of reality and information, and our basic political values. More than any other thing, they are drawing us into buying things we may not want or even need.
The invention of personal and revolutionary devices like the Ipad and I phone are creating whole new categories of addiction and tens of millions of people are suffering from sleeplessness, mood swings, anger management problems, disconnection and alienation, as well as great distraction from life and work as the result. Many are losing their ability to think for themselves or be alone, and very few of us see what is happening right under our noses: we are becoming addicts.
The people who create new tech products and games are very good at what they do, says Stern, and they have made a science out of hooking us on devices, more than 58 per cent of all Americans say they are online or their devices more than they want or mean to be, and that this is disrupting our lives.
For ninety minutes in 2010, Steve Jobs stood on a California stage and talked about his extraordinary new creation the Ipad, which he said would revolutionize our information gathering. But he refused to let his own children use it, he later told a reporter for the New York Times that the use of technology was severely limited in his home.
Stern calls this new addiction “behavioral,” rather than biological, but shrinks and doctors are beginning to realize that is often just as addictive and is also unhealthy and increasingly widespread. “The good news,” Stern writes, “it that our relationships with behavioral addiction aren’t fixed. There’s much we can do to restore the balance that existed before the age of smartphones, e-mails, wearable tech, social networking and on-demand viewing.”
But there is also much to learn and consider, and much of it is not comforting or pretty. I need to look in the mirror at myself first, as any addict has to do. And I was a valium addict for 30 years, I am sensitive to any suggestion I might be one again. Smartphone screen time usage is exploding in America. More than 50 per cent of smart phone users are using their phones between 2 and 6 hours a day. Only 12 per cent of users have less than an hour’s screen time a day.
Psychologists and researches are finding that smartphones, which increasingly tie us to our work and money and news and shopping and family and friends affect sleep, anger, patience, human relationships and peace of mind. Researchers developed tracking apps for smart phone users several years ago and have found 88 per cent of smart phone users were “overusing” their phones, that is spending more time on them than they needed to or wanted to.
Doctors say young people are often replacing real-time interactions with humans with digital relationships, they often don’t really understand the difference between the two Many young people have not learned how to interact with other people.
This book will get you talking and thinking about yourself and what you may have done to your life.
Alter includes an Internet Addiction Test
Beyond addiction issues, 46 per cent people say they couldn’t bear to live without their smartphones, and 80 per cent of teens check their phones at least once an hour. In 2015, they were spending two hours and forty-eight minutes a day on their phones. Up to 59 per cent of people of all ages say they are now dependent on social media sites, and that their reliance on these sites ultimately makes them angry uncomfortable, anxious, or unhappy.
This, then, has become a huge, even political issue for many Americans, although most people do not see themselves as having this kind of problem.
A few years ago, Facebook was fun. I don’t think anyone thinks it’s fun anymore, Twitter either.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write more about this book, and how technology and addiction affects me. Much of my life is now tied to my Iphone, it would be a dramatic transformation in my life and work to give it up or lose it. I do love it, but have always been aware of the dangers. I have some ideas about staying in control and staying healthy.
According to the test, I am not addicted to the Internet, but I am using it more than I would like and it very often does make me frustrated, angry or unhappy. At times, it has greatly affected the quality and duration of rest and sleep.
Alter writes about the profound impact these devices have on our social interactions, our ability to think, to be alone, to make lasting friendships, to have meaningful relationships. I affects the degree to which we are angry, over-stimulated or frightened.
I have experienced some of that. I have also found some solid solutions to these kinds behavioral addiction, and will share them with you. I highly recommend this book, it is well-researched, well written, and essential for almost everyone struggling to deal with the impact of technology on their lives and well-being. I have been writing online for more than 30 years, I am familiar with the issues he raises so well.
I doubt there is anyone reading this who is not thinking about this, especially in recent months. So I’ll share this trip with you, I am grateful to be reading this very excellent book, I recommend it highly. Stay tuned.
Many thanks to you and to Rachel Barlow for collecting more than $2,000 in just a few days for Creativity Kids (Art Kits) for refugee and other children who have been traumatized and need help in finding their voice, building confidence and lighting their creative spark.
Refugee children are often bewildered and frightened when they come here, and the new and sometimes hateful policies over immigration are making their adjustment much slower and more difficult. I have seen some of the suffering and anxiety close up and it is wrenching.
I can testify that many of their parents and foster parents (a good number of the children have lost one or both parents) are frightened to let them move about freely and mingle with other people and children. They are very alone and need to express themselves and find themselves.
They desperately need these kits to help them heal and adapt to a radically different environment, to occupy them, encourage their creativity and help them get past their hard times. Barlow, an acclaimed Vermont writer, illustrator and landscape artist, is already seeking to expand her program nationally and to include foster children and other children in distress.
She is already having a great success.
The kits are simple and beautiful and Rachel has already put together about 100 of them, they will shortly go out to refugee children and kids in foster care.
The idea seems to be catching fire, and Rachel, an artist and abuse victim herself, has a special sensitivity that is pushing this innovative program and understands the power of creativity to change lives and give people voice. Barlow suffers from Bi-polar disorder and depression, her creativity has grounded her and helped saved her life.
She means to help do the same for others.
This kind of activity speaks very directly to my own personal and emerging political philosophy. I am not a hater, I am not interested in arguing with people, launching personal attacks on anyone, or denigrating the good people who have different ideas than I do. I do not seek the approval of others for my beliefs.
I do not believe in the left or the right, I embrace the idea of supporting my values of compassion and dignity and liberty for all people.
I can’t support any kind of program that targets children and families so harshly.
Rachel’s program speaks directly to that idea, and it is gratifying to see how many people are already embracing it.
She started out wanting to make 40 kits, she is already planning for more than 200. People are enthusiastically responding to this idea. You can donate any amount at any time, and you will know precisely where it is going for for what.
I am also exploring the use of these kits in my therapy work at assisted care facilities for the elderly. I have witnessed the healing power of creativity there as well.
What’s in a kit? You can see here. Where can you donate? Right here.
And thanks. You Are An Army Of Good, and you are piling up one victory after another.
