THE INTERNET AND ATTENTION SPAN
We have one of the greatest inventions of our time—the internet, it is a household word. Now people can meet people in other countries that they otherwise would not have. People can Skype, tweet, post, and take selfies with their cell phones. However there comes with it a price for such instant gratification; the attention span of the average adult is now 8 seconds or less, which is less than that of a goldfish. The reading level for the average adult is the 7th and 8th grade.
I hear children these days say that they hate books; so now more and more people are reading less and less. And as a result one of the greatest treasures and resources of the mind suffers due to a lack of interest; and that is...the imagination; which according to Einstein is more powerful than knowledge. Imagination is responsible for everything that a man/woman has created by their own hand. Imagination allows us to look beyond the horizon to better things, without it, what do we have?
The majority of children don't want to use their imagination, they don't want to read, and they don't want to work. Can we say that they don't want to live?
And so opportunities die due to a lack of interest and initiative.
I spent four years living on the streets, however my reading skills, sociable skills, interpersonal skills, and writing skills, are greater than that of the average adult, and I have to wonder what is the excuse for such negligence. Have they had it too easy?
Is it because very few people care anymore? They want it all now, and don't want to work for it?
WRITING
I have been writing for four decades now. However, I do not consider myself a successful writer--at least not as successful as I wanted to be. Sure, I have had work published, but it goes unread. Because either people have no interest in what I write or they have no interest in reading and using their imaginations, period. People would rather see The Movie, rather than read The Book. And now what is written anymore, or is offered by Redbox and Netflix is crap. Had I known this years ago, I would have probably opted not to write as much as I have. But I had dreams, I had drive, I had commitment, only to see it fail to reach fruition. Because it isn't how good a person is anymore with imagination and the written word, when people don't want to read. And so being a successful writer these days is like being struck by lightning three times. It is no longer what you know or how good you are; it is a matter of luck, who you know, and being in the right place at the right time.
I was offered a contract for a novel that had taken me 5 years to write. It was of the horror-fantasy genre. It was a large book, 500+ pages. And the publisher wanted to break it down into three novels; he was very excited about it. And it was true horror, quite visceral, quite intelligent; it was enough to frighten my wife. And those who read the work wanted to see it complimented by the Silver Screen, and then appear as a series on Netflix and Amazon. But, unfortunately, as luck would have it, the editor didn't want visceral horror. Instead, she wanted something along the lines of The Woman in Black. She didn't want to edit my work because it was too visceral, and so the contract became null and void. As it stood, the editor's last book that she wrote, before mine came along, was one about koala bears. Oh--but my luck in the writing business hasn't been a business at all, it has been for shit. And as a result, it has been extraordinarily discouraging. I wonder what I am doing here; I feel often like I am wasting my time with anything I try to do.
And yet, still I write. I'm not entirely sure as to why I write. Perhaps it is as simple as the fact that I write because I can. Or perhaps it is because I believe that I have something important to share. On the other hand, perhaps it is because I have always wanted to be an entertainer that believes in intellectual stimulation, and wondrous entertainment. I try to offer something that is out of this world, something that people haven't seen before.
