Illegal Multi-tasking

We surrender certain rights in exchange for the privilege to fly.  We prove a level of competence for a license to drive.  Up until now we've gotten walking for free, but some state law makers are looking to change that.  Specifically they want to instate fines for crossing the street with headphones on.  New York State Senator Carl Kruger summarizes the reasoning, "We’re taught from knee-high to look in both directions, wait, listen and then cross.  You can perform none of those functions if you are engaged in some kind of wired activity."  Not true.  Through the magical power of "pause" I performed those exact functions while listening to an audio book yesterday.  Yet here we are with the skills of the few determining the laws for the many.  Oh Big Brother. . . I liked you better back when you were Uncle Sam.

App Only News?

The dawn of the internet has shaken the foundation of news-reporting, especially for newspapers.  Now the mobile revolution leverages digital distribution in an instant-on always connected experience; the final advantages of paper periodicals are disappearing, forcing news-organizations to push their content into more and more distribution channels. News is still on paper and tv, but it's also on news-sites, blogs, social networks, e-book readers, and app-stores.  One publication is betting that app-stores beat the rest. Can a news source survive, or thrive, in only one content channel?  Even harder, can that news source justify a pay-wall when ad-supported news of the same events is so prolific?  No.  The trend of modern ingenuity is to destroy distribution barriers.  An attempt to artificially create one is a step in the wrong direction.

Distracted Potential

The Digital Revolution has re-drawn the boundaries of human growth. Anyone can become their most achieved self, but to do so they have to wade past the tide of distractions and achieve. The constant flood of social media, news, and entertainment has made it possible to be as busy as ever doing nothing. We can only imagine what music Mozart could have made with access to custom created instruments in a Digital Age. However, I can't help but wonder how many modern Mozarts there are that forget to try because they're too enthralled by the latest viral video.