Life in the Slow Lane

I get 95 percent of what I consider “news” from the Internet. I visit newspaper websites, CNN; a variety of sources. I check them several times a day. It’s like I’m watching the Internet for something to happen. And a lot of days it doesn’t. As if the information superhighway is stuck at a rest stop. I get bored quickly. Those are the kinds of days that snippets about Nicki Minaj’s latest tantrum or “what’s really in your dog’s food” seem interesting. And I don’t even have a dog.

Is it me or are we all just waiting online for the next big news event? When it comes, we fixate on it for a day or two, then step back in line and wait for the next big event. They say it will take months, even years for some communities to recover from Superstorm Sandy. Hundreds of thousands of people still don’t have power. But do we care?

We should. If I were one of the powerless thousands, that would be the foremost thing on my mind. And if it was my neighbor, I’d likely string an extension cord next door if it would help. But because it isn’t right in front of me – either physically or on the screen – I seem desensitized. Even insensitive.

Maybe that’s a result of looking at a screen for what’s going on in the world, instead of looking out a window.