Age of Immediacy

On my first day of class this week, one of my photo professors (whom I super admire) had us read an article in Wired Magazine by J. J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and lots of other good stuff. It was such an inspiring start to the semester, and I've been thinking about it every since.



Basically, the article is about how, because we have information so readily available to us these days, we lose out on some great experiences. He gives an example of going to a music store to buy an album. It used to be quite a journey, one resulting in sorting through lots of physical albums, getting distracted by cool album art, and likely discovering something you didn't know about before. Once you had the new album or two, there's no way you wouldn't listen to it after everything you went through to buy it. Now though, you can download music online in about two seconds, and it can sit unlistened to for months.

Some of the best lines are:

"That is to say, the experience—the setup for a joke's punch line, the buildup to a magic trick's big flourish—is as much of a thrill as the result. There's discovery to be made and wonder to be had on the journey that not only enrich the ending but in many ways define it."

"Perhaps that's why mystery, now more than ever, has special meaning. Because it's the anomaly, the glaring affirmation that the Age of Immediacy has a meaningful downside. Mystery demands that you stop and consider—or, at the very least, slow down and discover. It's a challenge to get there yourself, on its terms, not yours."

"The point is, we should never underestimate process. The experience of the doing really is everything. The ending should be the end of that experience, not the experience itself."

So basically, almost the entire value of a thing is in the process, the journey it takes to get there. I love that reminder.

If you want the whole experience (you do, don't you?), you can find the whole article here.

Love.