At my computer in the office, I locked the screen to go and get my second coffee of the morning.
This beautiful locked-screen image met my eyes and distracted me (temporarily) from thoughts of my next coffee (only my second one of the morning. By 09:09, I know!)
It’s a picture of an Indian white-eye bird.
I was so struck by the image that I thought, I would like to know more about this white bespectacled birdy.
It occured to me how fortunate we are that we can access so much knowledge; that I didn’t need to go anywhere to find out more; that I might never have seen this little bird in my life without the internet. I appreciated for a while this digital window to the world.
But then another thought: days of needing to get up and go searching for information. This meant more resources going into finding something out. It meant more focus and concentration on one thing at a time.
I began reflecting on how widespread my attention is these days. How diluted it might be becoming.
Something about learning in that way – of moving to find something, a sense of mission and adventure, the sensory input associated with it, a more embodied and holistic learning.
How much goes it when it’s so easy and quick to find, and the stakes are low? Nothing can be lost, it’s always there, on the internet cloud somewhere. We don’t even need to remember to click ‘save’ anymore.
How much information sticks when everything is so easy?
In my work as a programme facilitator we use the VARK model of learning for planning sessions. My interest in this has been piqued further. But even if not directly related to kinaesthetic preference for learning, just the additional investment that was needed to go and find information, being selective with energy and attention. Everything is so easily there, I’m afraid our understanding muscles aren’t being worked out, and the system of knowing is becoming fragmented. This is something that has been a concern in society for decades, I know. But with AI summaries being increasinly shoved in our faces, it feels even more so.
I’m afraid of becoming less kinaesthetic, more anaesthetic!
Sigh.
This post is really apropos nothing, except to share a picture of a pretty birdy. Hopefully I’ll at least remember what it’s called.
And it’s described as gregarious, hyperactive, prefers more open forest areas rather than dense, and makes a faint “zwee!” call.
I’d like to meet this bird.
