Another lovely day here today and the forecast looks set for more lovely sunny days in the week ahead:
Those temperatures aren’t anything to email home about, but it’s nice enough and, as Mrs 6000 pointed out, it’s hardly summer, is it? Which it absolutely isn’t, no. That would only start on the 1st or the 21st of December, depending upon which system you’re using.
But we shouldn’t be complaining, especially when looking back over at the UK. This image has been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, indicating the number of hours of sunshine around the UK, the Isle of Man and Ireland over the first 7 (seven) days of November.
Ouch. Eina. My fok. Goodness gracious.
Bearing in mind that London is sitting on an average of about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight each day, they could have had over 65 hours of sunshine. They got 2. The Isle of Man – averaging just over 9 hours of daylight last week – got not a single hour.
In seven whole days!
Aberdeen was the big (and rather unlikely) winner. 8¾ hours of daylight each day, and a whole 13 hours of sunshine in seven days. That’s 21% of their daylight as sunshine. Incredible. Their local Burns Unit must be bursting at the seams, just like it is in late January each year.
We made hay (not literally) while the sun shone today, with the Boy Wonder driving himself and his friends down to Agulhas for a long weekend, and LM 6000, having recovered from her singing last night, riding a horse over some big sticks, rather amazingly.
But now it’s time to sit back with a glass of local red, and catch up with the Youtube videos I haven’t had time to watch this week. I’ll be incredibly knowledgeable and a brilliant photographer in about an hour.
This morning, I saw someone on Facebook lamenting the amount of time people spend looking at their cellphones. Of course, if I had spent a bit less time on my cellphone, I wouldn’t have seen it. If they’d spent a bit less time on their cellphone, it wouldn’t have been there to see in the first place.
The irony was not lost on me.
Of course, like anything, our phones can have their downsides. And there are certainly people who are – to varying degrees – addicted to their device. And because it is always there, it is always so easy just to take a quick look, and then to begin that lifeless doomscrolling. For however long.
And yes, while you are doing that, you are missing out on everything else around you.
It’s an important thing to remember even as a photographer: one of the arguments about making memories by taking photos is that you are not living in the moment and experiencing the actual event that you are trying to preserve.
But hang on, let’s not get our knickers in a knot.
It should be pointed out that Stephen Store was actually giving the lecture in question. And he wasn’t happy when he looked up from his notes and saw people on their phones:
“I saw at least dozens of you who spent the entire lecture looking at your phones. You’ve come here. You hear a talk and you can’t even pay attention to whom you’ve come to listen to. How can you pay attention to the food you eat or feel the sunlight on your skin?”
After a moment of silence, the audience erupted into applause. After this, Shore concluded, “I think this is a good place to stop,” stood up, and left the stage.
But… but…
According to SHINE, a witness claimed that there had been a misunderstanding. A person who reportedly attended the lecture said that many people were indeed looking at their phones, but some of them were actually listening and taking notes. “We’ve already conveyed this to Shore through staff members,” the person said. Another attendee added that they showed Shore their photos and videos of the notes everyone was taking, “and he said he felt much better about it.”
So perhaps this is just another example of society (and by “society”, I mean “older people”) needing to catch up a bit as technology outpaces the rules and etiquette we set around our daily lives. Because taking notes electronically is not an unusual thing to do, whereas when I (or Stephen, three decades before me) was studying, it was – quite literally – unheard of.
While there may be plenty of negatives about cellphone use, we shouldn’t overlook that there are many positives as well. And as part of the… ahem… “older generation”, perhaps we shouldn’t be quick so quick to judge. Because:
It would appear that, once again, reports heralding the death of civilisation at the execrable hands of technology might have been greatly exaggerated.
Remember this image?
Kids looking at their phones instead of the magnificence of Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Pfft. Tsk tsk.
Clearly, to lots of folk, the photograph epitomised everything that is wrong with young people these days and their ‘addiction’ to technology. These children were being distracted by their technology to such an extent that they weren’t paying any attention to the beauty surrounding them in the real world.
Only they weren’t. It turns out that the Rijksmuseum has an app that, among other things, contains guided tours and further information about the works on display. As part of their visit to the museum, the children, who minutes earlier had admired the art and listened attentively to explanations by expert adults, had been instructed to complete an assignment by their school teachers, using, among other things, the museum’s excellent smartphone app.
Because there is more to cellphones and technology than distraction from what we should be experiencing. Yes, “kids these days” all have cellphones and we have to deal with the parental challenges which come with them, but I bet that there’s a whole lot more information – and in a much more age-appropriate, user-friendly, engaging format – about that painting, on their devices.
My barber was telling me yesterday that she was going shopping after work so that her daughter could try out another recipe that she had found on social media. Because of what she has learned from the oft lamented (and quite reasonably so) TikTok, she’s honing her cooking skills and now has aspirations of becoming a chef. She has found her passion through her smartphone. Who knows where that might lead?
For balance: a quick note that we saw plenty of people “creating” utterly vacuous “content” for that same platform while at the Waterfront yesterday. So yeah, very much two sides to this whole thing. If civilisation – as seems ever more likely – comes crashing down around us, I’m not sure that the ability to accurately recreate a 12 second dance routine will stand society in great stead.
There’s no argument to me that this is clearly an generational thing. They’ve been around for 30 years now, but cellphones are still “new” to our generation, simply because we didn’t grow up with them. Our kids have never experienced anything else.
It is a failing of human nature to detest anything that young people do just because older people are not used to it or have trouble learning it. So I am wary of the “young people suck” school of social criticism.
Steven Pinker
So sure, let’s set boundaries and let’s communicate the rules we set for using cellphones in classrooms and lecture theatres, but also, let’s not be quite so quick to judge just because there’s a smartphone being used by a young individual (or anyone else).
Back to José Picardo at the Rijksmuseum:
I wonder whether the photo would have caused so much indignation and disapproval if it had depicted students ‘ignoring’ the masterpiece while reading a paper leaflet or museum brochure instead.
So, I wonder, what is more likely to bring about the death of civilisation, children using smartphones to learn about art or the willful ignorance of adults who are too quick to make assumptions?
Try hard not to be that adult. No matter how much it feels like you need to make a point about how your generation was so much better than theirs is.
It’s today. That’s it. The Boy Wonder’s last ever lesson at the school he has been attending since 2009.
That’s several – or more – years.
And while we have been here before, plans were changed on that occasion and he chose to go back and do another year of further studying.
That can’t happen this time. He’s got all of the qualifications he can get from them now.
And sure, he’s not completely done there. There is still prizegivings and plenty of admin stuff, there are still some exams to sit, and I guess that there will be plenty of goodbyes to say.
But as for lessons. Today. 1-2pm. That’s it.
Wow. End of an era.
By the way, much of next year is already sorted for him, but maybe more of that… er… next year.
Parenting continues. It just changes with time. With our daughter, we’re now at that age where almost everything is ok to do on her own, but sometimes there’s still a need (often mutual) to be present for backup and reassurance.
And so there are limits and negotiations and compromises. To be fair, the discussions are all very civil and understanding.
I’ve really matured.
More seriously, Obs on a sunny Saturday lunchtime is a good case in point. Probably completely cool and safe, but just that bit of lingering doubt. And so it was decided that we are hands off, but nearby.
And you think you’re overreacting until you wander down Lower Main Road and get approached by two dodgy types in as many minutes. And then you return to your car to find someone looking through the rear window for stuff to steal.
Lovely.
So while I’ve definitely had better Saturdays, I’m also very willing to be here. Just in case.
High hopes of being home for at least some of the football later, though.
There are a few new 6000 miles… readers in the house after the last couple of days, [deity] help them.
But anyway… Hi. Thanks for clicking through.
In case you didn’t know, I’ve been blogging each day (yes, all of them) for over 13½ years on here now – and not daily for a few years before that. There’s no particular theme here; just whatever takes my fancy on any given day from the news, my browsing, something I did, some photo I took or… whatever.
It’s a mixed bag.
If you’re expecting a post like yesterday’s each and every day, you might be a little disappointed, but those do come around occasionally, when the need and the time arise.
But like I said, it’s a mixed bag. And tonight, we made burgers and my daughter went all foodie photographer on us, so that’s what you’re getting here:
Super tasty, and almost certainly more nutritious than what I had planned having spotted this earlier:
Although on the downside, also quite a lot more prep time and washing up.
Look, it’s not exactly subtle stuff from the Olive Marketing Board there, but damn, it almost worked. Reading through, I found myself very tempted, but also concerned about the guilt and the potential consequences of eating 30 to 40 olives directly out of the jar with my fingers. Thankfully, that last line:
you will certainly not regret eating 30 to 40 olives
really put my mind at ease, and it was only when the rest of the family reminded my that I was long grown out of my heathen student days that we went for the burger option instead.
It was very nice. But there’s still a bit of me that thinks that maybe I’ve missed out on something. Like 30 to 40 olives.
