The Current Challenge

This week my boss got into Twitter and raved about it all week.

Something has changed since I was a kid - or even in college. At one time, there was an issue of access. I grew up reading only the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, I realize the Chronicle is a second (maybe third) rate local newspaper. But when I was young, the Chronicle was the way I accessed the rest of the world. The small, local paper was the Marin IJ which covered high school sports and local news and in contrast, the Chronicle seemed worldly.

My world of movies was the few movie theaters in town and the local video store. Music was the local Warehouse Music Store. On TV, at one time, we had 13 channels. When I was young, I'd listen to the A's on the radio at night because they weren't always on TV.

My freshman year in college, I paid $25 for a bootlegged Nirvana concert. My friends and I used to order "Dick's Picks" CDs through the mail to get awesome old Grateful Dead shows. Woody Allen was about as arty as it got for films - not only could I not see Renoir or Hawks - I had no way of even reading about these guys and discovering them.

Today access is not the problem. I can read every newspaper in the world (or at least sections of it) online. I can read hundreds of blogs commenting on all the newspapers. With Netflix, etc, I can access almost any movie - at least any movie on DVD. I can Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Friendster, Napster, Itunes, Gchat, Imovie, IPhone, watch/record every TV show on hundreds of channels, listen to every song ever recorded, read every classic book ever printed for free on cheap on google books or kindle, I can order any poster, any lamp, any car, any bottle of wine, any pair of jeans, buy any bike, or listen to any concert online for free bootlegged by someone on the band itself.

In short, there is too much access. The challenge, now, is to LIMIT oneself. How much time is there in the day? How can anyone possibly do all the following: Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Email, watch 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, The Office, Eastbound and Down, Flight of the Conchords, United States of Tara, Lost, and God-knows-what-other shows are out there, keep up with the NBA, college basketball, NFL, and MLB, go to the gym, play recreational sports, read books, go to work and do a good job, socialize with friends, internet date, go on vacation, go visit home and relatives, listen to new music - live and on itunes or via cd, sleep, eat right, get your car fixed, see new movies, take a class for self improvement, write a screenplay, design a board game, read the newspaper, go on hikes, clean your room, make your bed, recycle your waste, find a girlfriend, attend high school reunions, pay the bills, and occasionally play a round of golf.

This doesn't even mention the bigger things - getting married and raising kids - or anything political or social or trying to make the world a little better, etc.

There is simply too much to do. So now, the question is - where do you draw the line?

I will not be joining Twitter.