Category: theory

mindfulness

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Psychologist Ellen J.  Langer’s “Counter Clockwise: mindful health and power of possibility”, 2009.  Excerpt of the book.  Episode of NPR-Talk of the Nation, from this past August; a quote from the transcript.

LANGER: Well no, I think it’s easier than it sounds, actually, that, you know, it’s – people often confuse mindfulness with thinking, and thinking has gotten a bad rap itself. Now, when you’re being mindful, as I study it, you’re simply noticing new things. Even when you’re thinking, what is stressful is the worry that you’re not going to get the answer right, not the actual playing with the material.

Mindfulness is what you’re doing when you’re at leisure. If you are, oh, let’s say, on a vacation, you’re looking for new things. You’ve paid a lot of money to be in that state oftentimes. So I think that people would recognize that it’s enjoyable rather than taxing. And it’s even more than that. It’s I think mostly energy begetting, not consuming.

Reminds me a bit of  “The Art of Travel” by Alain De Botton.

when tu > vous (or usted)

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BBC on the second person address on the interweb, specifically usage of the informal “tu” vs. the formal “vous” on Twitter.

Social networking sites such as Twitter take this one step further, adopting codes “characterised by a heightened sense of emotional proximity”, such as friending on Facebook, he says.

Twitter, meanwhile, follows on from a long line of internet forums where users could be anonymous.

“In the philosophy of the internet, we are among peers, equal, without social distinction, whatever your age, gender, income or status in real life,” Besson says.

Addressing someone as “vous” – or expecting to be addressed as “vous” – on the other hand, implies hierarchy.

There are poignant comments on the article.