The Eternal Now

Have YOU got what it takes?

Forget the Eternal September; thanks to Twitter, the modern news cycle is on the Eternal Now, and here is the most intelligent thing I’ve read about that. From the comments section on Gawker. Of all places.

doxasticTom Scocca

10

Here’s the more sobering possibility—this is basically what NOW, as a shared now experienced by a ton of people, looks like. That we have a consistent and more or less complete understanding of what happens in time is only a product of intervening time—time to reflect and reconstruct. If we were to have a “breaking news” feed for our constant everyday life, it would be full of insanity. Twitter basically makes it capable to see what a thousand different nows (and the talk in between them) looks like if we were to all announce it at once. I.E. total insanity. Gives one pause for thought to consider how much reconstruction of shared time helps us get a sense of continuous understandability—and this reconstruction itself requires time to put together. Our sense of both chaos and solidity are made by the words of others.

Selah.