"My options need limiting. Last week I watched the first part of Electric Dreams, the 1900 House-style TV show where a family lives with old technology for several weeks. For episode one, they were stranded in the 1970s, with no internet, no DVDs or videos, and only three channels on the TV.... to me the limited options looked blissful. You couldn't lose yourself online, so if you didn't want to watch Summertime Special or World in Action, you had to read a book, go for a walk, or in extreme circumstances, strike up a conversation with a fellow human being."
He goes on to plead for someone to take choices away from him because, as he's said earlier in the artcile: he has passed a tipping point where he would be capable of 'consuming' what he's already bought: the hours written on the backs of the DVDs already add up to more time than he believes he has available -and that's before he reads the books that have mounted up (I can grok that latter point). Of course, no-one's going to do that for him or for us. We have to do that ourselves. But I'm just starting to wonder whether that is perhaps a task for Advent: as we approach the feast of Consumermas; to take stock,pass on (charity shop boom time, anyone?) and focus on the important 'stuff' in our lives ... just a thought ...
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