Clay Shirky’s introduction of cognitive surplus is very informative. The comparison of 100 million human thought hours in Wikipedia versus 200 billion hours watching Television is absurdly disturbing. I have read one or two Wikipedia articles, outside of Will Smith in class, and I have never edited any articles so I would consider that no contribution towards those human thought hours. On the other hand, I have definitely boosted TV’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) use over the years. Still, I can associate personally with the idea of cognitive surplus.
Since June 2009, when the U.S. Government implemented the switch of the Television signal broadcast from analog-to-digital conversion, I let go of Television. I have seen some TV since that time, but it’s been consequential, like at the laundromat, the barbershop or at my previous job. It has been a literal blessing in disguise. My cognitive surplus, especially at home, has increased by an effective amount. I am still in awe over how much I was enamored over ‘nothing’. I can remember being tired after watching so much TV, not doing anything but watching.
Now I feel better physically and my thinking and concentration has improved. The amount of time, free time, available for creative use like studying for school has materialized from out of the blue. Like today for instance. I woke up, I did my exercises, finished reading chapter 2 of Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus, ran to the barbershop for a trim and ran back, washed up, wrote this blog out on notebook paper and the time is only 12:42 p.m. Honestly, I feel like this used more time than it actually did.
I occasionally miss sports. I have not seen a Super Bowl since the digital conversion, but I don’t feel like I missed anything. As I appreciate the need for study and preparation for school, I relish this abundance of time. This is my version of cognitive surplus.
P.S.: Maybe my abundance of cognitive surplus is affecting me more than I realize: I forgot to give this blog a title.
So will you go back? Sports look amazing on the new big flat screen TVs so I am impressed with your discipline. Personally, I stopped watching TV when I had kids as I used all my down time to do stuff that I can’t do because my attention is needed elsewhere. So how else might we tie your experience back to Shirky’s arguments?