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Internetless in Maine

2009-09-15 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Philosophy & meaning · reflection essay

Hank, visiting relatives in rural Maine far from the internet, offers two brain crack ideas and argues that understanding people complexly requires time with people unlike ourselves, away from the screens he lives in.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hours from the internet, visiting great-aunt and uncle-in-law in rural Maine; Montana comparison; dumb phone

  • ★★ Hank is visiting his great-aunt and uncle-in-law in the middle of nowhere in Maine, hours from the nearest internet connection. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Hank contrasts Montana (movie theaters, galleries, demolition derbies, internet cafés) with the place, which has plumbing and hot water; his phone gets great reception but is not a smartphone. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Montana

00:00:45 — Time offline brings brain crack: vending machines on buses; a clamp-on time-lapse camera

  • ★★ Hank says long stretches without the internet leave him with colossal amounts of brain crack, since when not doing things he thinks about things to do. (hedged) — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Brain crack idea one: build vending machines into buses (Greyhound or city) so riders can get a Coke or a sandwich, because he is always hungry and thirsty on buses. — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Brain crack idea two: a housed camera you clamp to a tree or pole that takes time-lapse pictures, to collect a year later. — 00:00:45

00:01:23 — Life here is barely different, yet enough to show how little he knows of other lives; understanding people complexly needs time with different people; the good old days

  • ★★★ Hank says life here is barely different, only without internet, yet that is enough to show him most people live lives nothing like his, which he never thinks about. — 00:01:23
  • ★ Hank mentions a friend about to go to the Congo to teach digital media to Congolese people, which he calls an awesome idea and a very different life. — 00:01:23
  • ★★★ Hank notes the brothers talk about understanding people complexly yet spend about 10 hours a day at a computer, and asks how you can understand people you know nothing about. — 00:02:06 · perspective-taking
  • ★★★ Hank argues we should spend as much time as possible with people as different from us as possible, but do the opposite because similar people are easier to understand. — 00:02:06 · perspective-taking
  • ★★ Among people who talk of the good old days (no abductions, better apples, healthy meat, clear bad guys), Hank says those days were old but no better than today's. — 00:02:36
  • ★★ Hank says the era that shaped millions of Americans is something he can never understand, so he struggles to understand many Americans, and their relaxing way of life stresses him. — 00:03:05 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank concludes he cannot understand people complexly unless he occasionally spends days away from the technology that is his home, work, fun, play and soapbox. — 00:03:05

00:03:34 — Sign-off: tomorrow a pre-filmed, internet-inspired video; no FireWire cable, so filmed on the iSight camera

  • ★★ Hank tells John the next video will be a less serious, internet-inspired one he filmed the week before. — 00:03:34
  • ★ Hank forgot his FireWire cable, so he filmed on the iSight camera, 'proving' a good vlog can be made with it. (playful) — 00:03:34

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