The digital contraction of the present

Abstract

Digital communication tools have become the air we breathe, the liquid medium in which we operate, so that we can hardly imagine not being connected, answering compulsively the emails piling up by the hundreds, following the tweets list that is updated faster than we can read them, trying to follow the broken thread of a Facebook  conversation, tying the knots of our fragile professional links, clumsily typing with two fingers SMS messages as brief as often imcomprensibly spelled, and doing all this simultaneously and separately, plunging into the digital stream that promises a new kind of freedom through the constant dynamic motion. The truth, however, is that it is quite the opposite of what was promised, and we are increasingly becoming aware of the antagonistic effects that this speed without any purpose imposes upon our senses, our capacity for concentration and understanding, and our perception of the weight and importance of the moment.