Enjoy Your Brainfood: The Slow Internet Movement

I mentioned the Slow Food movement in a previous post. It started in
Europe about a decade ago in reaction to fast food. Apparently all of
those French and Italian gustocrats want to ENJOY their food, and the
friendly conversations that occur around a meal, rather than rush
through a microwavable burrito and a Red Bull or two while answering
emails like a certain over-worked Production Manager I know. But food
is primarily a biospheric phenomena-- what would be its analogue in the
Noosphere? Simply put: information. And broadband internet access is
essentially the drive-thru window of the info economy (especially with
such time-saving enhancements as RSS aggregators and AJAX
applications), allowing one to blaze through reams of data no hacker,
zinester, or bibliophile would have dreamed of even a decade ago. But
what, with all this speed, might we be losing out on? Do we reflect on
the information piling into our brains? Do we digest it? Enjoy it?
Share it with friends?

Sadly, it doesn't always seem so. As every blogger knows, its quantity,
not so much quality, that drives the informed lifestyle. But ripping
through blogs 18 at a time every day the way fat mexicans rip through a
pile of Gorditos leaves much to be desired: ALL food (biospheric and
noospheric) begins to become bland and indistinct. Blogging software
allows any Joe Schmoe with access to a meat pile to have his own
mini-grill, and we infonauts run down the Strip of info franchise
heaven stuffing our faces and tasting none of it. Little nutritional
value, little processing time.

So I am proposing a conscious reorganization of our attitude towards
info-consumption: SLOW THE FUCK DOWN. Enjoy it! Ponder it! Reflect on
it! "But I need to get more perspectives on this issue!" You can't
think yourself into these? "But my own brain is boring and dull and
uncreative!" Have you given it space to try? "There are so many blogs
to read!" Pick three (Just Write! plus two others), and read the shit
out of them. Read posts 4 or 5 times over. Comment on them ten times.
Draw a mindmap in your sketchbook and plot out all the tangents and
considerations this one blog post has you considering. Chew, mulch,
mull over. Quantity of info and opinions is no match for quality. Find
three good blogs and learn to prepare, cook, and eat them correctly.
Unplug your computer and go for a walk. Keep a journal or use a tape
recorder. Insure that no bit of information goes unprocessed. Restrain
yourself from consuming "junk data", information you don't need which
will only fill your mind with lard and cholesterol.

And then read Snow Crash.