Pablo Mera a.k.a Pablo EMG , Uruguayan-born writer and longtime resident of Paraguay whose life has moved through sport, business, reinvention, family devotion, setbacks, observation, and persistent hope. he writes with unusual candor about dignity, masculinity, suffering, resilience, love, and the architecture of a meaningful future. The Lucid Misfit’s Handbook is his first major English-language work.
Tiempo líquido - Zygmunt Bauman / Ivete Sangalo - "Fullgas"
Tiempo líquido - Zygmunt Bauman
En “La Modernidad Líquida” Zygmunt Bauman busca explorar cuales son los atributos de la sociedad capitalista que han permanecido en el tiempo y cuales las características que han cambiado. El autor busca así expandir los trazos que eran levemente visibles en las etapas tempranas de acumulación pero que se vuelven centrales en la fase tardía de la modernidad. Una de esas características es la profundización del proceso creciente de individualización social, por ello se discutirá cuales son las posibles alternativas para recrear el espíritu y el accionar comunitario en una era en que las relaciones sociales se han vuelto profundamente líquidas, precarias, transitorias y volátiles.
La caracterización de la modernidad como un “tiempo líquido” -la expresión, acuñada por Zygmunt Bauman- da cuenta del tránsito de una modernidad “sólida” –estable, repetitiva– a una “líquida” –flexible, voluble– en la que las estructuras sociales ya no perduran el tiempo necesario para solidificarse y no sirven de marcos de referencia para los actos humanos.
El sentimiento dominante hoy en día es la incertidumbre, inseguridad y vulnerabilidad. Se trata de una particular “precariedad”, la de esa inestabilidad asociada a la desaparición de patrones a los que anclar las certezas.
Lo “líquido” de modernidad, a su vez, se refiere a la conclusión de una etapa de “incrustación” de los individuos en estructuras “sólidas”, como el régimen de producción industrial o las instituciones democráticas, que tenían una fuerte raigambre territorial.
La incertidumbre en que vivimos se debe también a otras transformaciones entre las que se cuentan: el debilitamiento de los sistemas de seguridad que protegían al individuo, o la renuncia al pensamiento y a la planificación a largo plazo: el olvido se presenta como condición del éxito. Este nuevo marco implica la fragmentación de las vidas, exige a los individuos que sean flexibles, que estén dispuestos a cambiar de tácticas, a abandonar compromisos y lealtades. Bauman también se refiere al miedo a establecer relaciones duraderas y a la fragilidad de los lazos solidarios que parecen depender solamente de los beneficios que generan. Postula que el amor al prójimo, uno de los fundamentos de la vida civilizada y de la moral, ha distorsionado hasta tal punto que se teme a los extraños. Bauman se empeña en mostrar cómo la esfera comercial lo impregna todo, en el sentido de que las relaciones se miden en términos de costo y beneficio -”liquidez” en el sentido financiero.
Meu mundo você é quem faz
Música, letra e dança
Tudo em você é fullgás
Tudo você é quem lança
Lança mais e mais em mim
¿SUSPENDER EL CELULAR O SUSPENDER EL SEXO ? 33% ELIGEN SUSPENDER EL SEXO
Survey: 33% of Americans Would Rather Give Up Sex for a Week Than Their Cell Phones
Tiffany Kaiser - August 3, 2011 7:53 PM
(Source: glamou
New TeleNav survey asked U.S. mobile phone users to choose between giving up their cell phones for a week, or one of life's other little pleasures/needs like sex, chocolate or their toothbrush
Many Americans are gadget-obsessed in this day and age. Devices like smartphones, tablets, MP3 players and laptops have become convenient companions for the American lifestyle, but according to a new study conducted by TeleNav, Inc., some mobile phone owners overshoot the "convenient companion" category and land somewhere in the "love affair" group.
TeleNav, a wireless location-based services company, conducted a national survey that asked Americans to choose between giving up their cell phones for a week; or one of life's other little pleasures/needs like sex, chocolate or their toothbrush. A total of 514 U.S. mobile phones users (254 males and 260 females) "of driving age" participated in the study between July 15 and July 19, 2011.
According to the survey, one-third of all participants would rather give up sex for a week rather than their mobile phone. Seventy percent of those in this category were women. Also, 22 percent of smartphone users said they could go a week without seeing their significant other in favor of keeping their mobile device while 14 percent of feature phone users feel the same way. Human companionship or no human companionship, 66 percent of people in the survey said they sleep with their cell phones next to them.
Moving on, 70 percent of participants would rather give up alcohol for a week than their mobile phone while 63 percent would rather give up chocolate, 55 percent would rather give up caffeine, 54 percent would give up exercise, 22 percent would give up their toothbrush, 21 percent would give up their shoes and 20 percent would give up their computer.
The survey also found that iPhone users were particularly attached to their little mobile friends (or possibly more than friends) over Android and BlackBerry users. In fact, iPhone users made up a majority of the following categories: 40 percent of iPhone users were willing to give up their toothbrush, 43 percent would go a week without shoes, and 83 percent believed other iPhone users would be the best romantic companions.
The iPhone users in this particular survey were also twice as likely to spend more than $40 on apps than Android or BlackBerry users. But Android users topped iPhone users when asked if their phone reflects their overall sense of style -- nearly half of Android users feel this way while only 35 percent of iPhone users see their phones as a stylish representation of themselves.
Tiffany Kaiser - August 3, 2011 7:53 PM
STRANGE SEX HABITS OF SILICON VALLEY
My wife put our daughter to bed, brushed her teeth, and freshened up before bed. Slipping under the covers, we exchanged glances and knew it was time to do what comes naturally for a couple on a warm night in Silicon Valley. We began to lovingly caress–but not each other, of course. She began to fondle her cell phone, while I tenderly stroked the screen of my iPad. Ooh, it felt so good.
If our nightly habits were any indication, we were having a love affair with our gadgets instead of each other.
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones substituting foreplay for Facebook. According to a recent study, fully one-third of Americans would rather give up sex than lose their cell phones.
Fortunately for my wife and I, we learned how to end our liaisons with gizmos and successfully reclaim our lovelife. However, technology continues to change many of our most intimate behaviors and the story of how we broke our technophilia illustrates a method to break any number of habits we’d be better off without.
CUCKOLD BY THE INTERNET
First, we took a look at the problem and realized it was bigger than our sex lives. As technology becomes more pervasive, it is also becoming more persuasive. The result is products so seductive that they are increasingly difficult to resist. We are forming habits with unintended consequences and new bedroom practices are symptomatic of technology evolving faster than we are. The confluence of increased access, greater sharing of personal information, and at higher transmission speeds, has created the perfect storm of addictive technology.
Being in the business of habit-forming technology, I see both sides of the coin. While new innovations hold limitless potential to help us create beneficial habits to improve our lives, we’re also easily manipulated through our devices, and often to our own detriment. As a society, we tend to adopt new innovations wholesale, without considering what we’re paying in return. But there is always a price.
The cost of being able to connect with anyone in the world instantaneously is not being fully present when with the person physically next to you. Our only hope of maintaining healthy relationships is to understand and deconstruct the mechanics of addictive technology.
TEMPTATION: THE ORIGINAL SIN
For my wife and me, the allure of inbox notifications on our cell phones proved hard to resist. Promising to reply to just one more email after dinner quickly turned into 45 minutes of lost nookie later that night. So we began to look for what touched off this routine. Since habits rely on a cue to trigger behavior, action is often sparked by the things around us. Research indicates that the strength of our lust increases with our proximity to the object of desire.
We realized we were part of the 65% of American adults who, according to the Pew Research Center, sleep with their phones on or next to their beds. We decided to move our phones from our bedroom to the living room and, with the trigger gone, we regained a bit more control over our techno-infidelity.
DEALING WITH DESIRE
But after a few phone-free evenings, I began to notice a stressful anxiety. My mind became occupied with all the things calling for my attention. Who might be trying to send me an important email? What was the latest comment on my blog? What was I missing on Twitter? The stress was palpable and painful, so I did what anyone who makes a firm commitment to breaking a bad habit would do. I cheated.
Though the word “desire” can have positive connotations, neurologically speaking desire means pain. Brain scans reveal that our motivational system, fueled by the chemical dopamine, is wired to prod us to action by creating a stress response, which we seek to extinguish.
But with my cell phone in the doghouse, I needed to find a new partner. To my relief, I felt the anxiety melt away as I pulled out my laptop and began to bang on the keyboard. My wife, seeing my example, pounced on the opportunity to relieve her own stress, and we were back at it again. After a few days of late nights on our machines, we sheepishly admitted that we had failed.
Embarrased but undeterred, we wanted to know what happened. By again referring to my experience helping companies create habit-forming technologies, we discovered where we’d gone wrong.
Embarrased but undeterred, we wanted to know what happened. By again referring to my experience helping companies create habit-forming technologies, we discovered where we’d gone wrong.
CREATING A SPACE
Feedback loops and desire engines work best when users move quickly from trigger to action. The less time spent between feeling an urge and satisfying it, the stronger the habit.
We realized we hadn’t learned to deal with the discomfort of breaking the compulsion and so were hopelessly drawn back in. This time however, we devised some tricks to insert time, effort, and mindfulness in between the desire and the deed.
We connected our router and monitors to $7 timer outlets, which shut off the power at 9pm automatically. In order to “cheat” we would have to uncomfortably contort behind our desks to flip the override switch. We also implemented a 10-minute rule and promised that if one of us really wanted to use a gadget after hours, we had to wait 10 minutes before actually doing so. The rule allowed time to do what some behavioral psychologists call “surfing the urge.” When an urge takes hold, bringing attention to the sensations of stress and riding them like a wave–neither pushing them away, nor acting on them–helps us cope until the feelings subside.
I apply this technique to other habits I’m breaking. For example, I “surf the urge” to continue eating even after I’m satiated. The technique works just as well for resisting chocolate cake as watching one more kitty videos on Icanhascheezburger.
LOVING ALL OVER YOURSELF
Finally, we were making progress. We’d learned to cope with the stress of stopping our compulsion to use technology and, over time, it took less willpower to resist. We began using our reclaimed time for *cough* more productive purposes as we gained greater control over our habits.
But transgressions occasionally still happen, and likely always will. Researchers have found that even long after the behaviors of a habit are extinguished, the neural pathways remain, making re-habituation all the more likely. Thankfully, there are ways to improve the odds of keeping bad habits at bay.
The deciding factor between falling off the wagon completely and containing a habit for good is resilience after failure. The degree to which we are able to deal with a recurrence of an undesirable behavior with self-compassion instead of self-loathing makes all the difference.
As the world becomes a more addictive place, dealing with habit-forming technology is just one of the many distracting temptations with which we must learn to cope. My wife and I still love our gadgets and fully embrace the promise of innovation to improve humanity. But we want to benefit from the use of technology without suffering from the corrosive effects it can have on our relationships.
By understanding how habits work–whether they are technology-related or not–we can learn to control them instead of letting them control us. Removing triggers, learning to cope with the pain of desire, and cultivating self-compassion are useful methods my wife and I have used to prioritize what matters most in our lives, first of which is “getting it on.”
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