| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 6:19:47 AM | Has our modern society lost the ability to focus? Has anyone noticed you can start a discussion here and many people will get so sidetrack on small issue of the thread and not discuss the main topic intended ? Do many people need to go back to English101 to try to understand identifying the main topic?
o many readers "read so much into a small statement" and totally not pay attention to what was said? | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 6:45:55 AM | I loved English class, the books and writing stories was my favorite part.
Shakesspeare was a bit tough to understand at first but once you get the mindset of it the real appreciation begins although I couldn't see myself wearing the clothes they had back then.
Those stocking and stuff look like they would be riding up all day. I would be uncomfortable all day especailly if I had to ride a horse.
Don't you just love horses! Riding the trails and the surf of a beach.
Oh yeah just remebered. Going to Jamaica this winter. Gotta escape the cold it has been a few years since I have managed to get to the beach or down south.
Hang on, what was this thread about?
to the op
You are right but I really believe it has to do with the topic at hand. There can be a lot of mitigating factors that should be topics of their own.
The worst is when their is an argument over grammer or spelling which derails a thread for a page or two.
Biggest problem here I find is it can't be treated as a discussion, the site will not allow two people to banter back and forth in sequence. It is not a chat room but some would like it to be. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 6:57:31 AM | | I learnd my lessons from School House Rock...Im a Boob and proud to be the smartest Boob you will ever meet. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 7:01:55 AM | That wa another beautiful post that made me smile....have a great day!!!!
Oooops I need to go back to Typing101...I apologize for typos above!!!! I typed too fast and too early already today...lol...Im sure some kind POF'r will come in soon and begin very much discussion about my typos...you know how it goes... | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 8:25:34 AM | | Which reminds me of a story of the time that me and Teddy Roosevelt when Snipe hunting in Yosemite. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 8:37:15 AM |
Do many people need to go back to English101 to try to understand identifying the main topic?
There are two answers to your question – one intended and the other unintentional.
When people get so side tracked in a thread it unintentionally tells you something about them. They have hang-ups, are scared emotionally and jump at a perceived injustice, are so rigid in their thinking that they can only see things their way, or are just plain drama freaks. It’s all about them and has nothing to do with a thread or conversation.
So, to answer the question you posed, I’d have to say no, it’s not that people need to go back to school – they have to do a little self introspection and learn about themselves. Once people can sit back and look at what is being said and why, they can be a useful contributor in a thread or conversation.
I often assert that 98% of the world is asleep and 2% of us marvel at the world – and the world keeps proving me right.
Best
MG | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 9:06:01 AM | | I threw my typewriter out the window in school a hundred years ago I thought the window was open...My grammer really stinks my writing like a doctors on a prescription pad, and I write. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 9:36:56 AM | I was going to post a reply an hour ago but forgot what I was doing and read several other posts before getting back here...
Soooo ,, What are we talking about ???
Oh yea ,, Snipe hunting or something like that.
I think I remember hearing about a flying typewriter a while back..
But someone said America would become a free country when Pigs fly..
I started designing wings that could be supplied to all police stations across America but was told that cops don't get pilots licenses due to having LOW IQs and breaking all of the laws they are paid to uphold, even the law of gravity.
When Mary had a little lamb, Did she eat it?
My feet hurt when I stand on my head too long , why do you think they call them peace officers?
It's never peaceful after they come around...
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 11:02:40 AM | It's very common for threads to go off topic. Someone makes a statement as reinforcement for their rationale toward the topic, and then someone else feels the need to rebut that "reinforcing" statement. Discussion tend to have all things considered by the time they are finished. I know this is supposed to be a forun, but it's not. It's more of a chat room and everyone has their opinions about what other people say, even if it's not pertainig to the OP.
If we didn't get off topic, then you would likely have one response per person.The threads would grow boring after a while. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 12:16:07 PM | I try my best to only stay unfocused on 2-3 threads at a time. That way the cross-posting doesn't infect every thread on the system.
Quite frankly, the news media finds things that have absolutely zero bearing on most folks to be "news". That way, it seems like they're doing something in the lulls between the big stories that do. That only leads to "minutiae overload": A constant onslaught of irritating things that most people wouldn't ever think twice about if they stepped on a warm steaming pile of it...Keeps everybody on edge and at each others' throats....And much more susceptible to easier influence down the road due to a loss of focus on things that truly matter. Politicians bank on it.
They should just fill those spaces in with quiet mood music. "No news is good news", right? Good news is news, too, isn't it?
Shhhhh! Take a deep breath and say your mantras... | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 1:05:13 PM | So...what was the topic? Sore feet? Flying cops or typewriters or something?
Main topic....well.duh...I forget waht it was....ah well...must not have been near as important as the minisculia I was going to post about a most interesting thing about tse-tse flies balls.... | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 1:10:47 PM | Funny, most classes I've taken became much more interesting when they went off topic. But who cares, don't be so damn controlling and thinking that your thought is the height of profound wonderfulness and that everyone must follow your way.  | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 1:26:39 PM | | Vicks is really great for sore feet I wish I knew that 30 years ago except now I smell like an old person at least no one can smell my depends... | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 1:40:13 PM |
Has our modern society lost the ability to focus?
I think so. What with cell phones, texting, the on-slaught of "multi-tasking" being considered an asset (when, in fact, it decreases one's ability to focus and causes more mistakes), etc., etc.
Has anyone noticed you can start a discussion here and many people will get so sidetrack on small issue of the thread and not discuss the main topic intended ?
Yes, I've noticed. However, some of those "side trips" are very entertaining!
Do many people need to go back to English101 to try to understand identifying the main topic?
Possibly. There have been some topics that, after reading the original post, I sit back, scratch my head, and say "What the begeezus are they saying?"
Now, where was I? You'll have to excuse me, but the dogs started barking, the buzzer on the clothes dryer just went off, the phone rang, and welllll-llllll, you know how it goes. Multi-tasking does have its drawbacks. Now if I can just remember where I put the phone, I'll feel much, much better!
Sequoyah | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 4:29:33 PM | | What you describe is actually the ability to focus on whatever one idea the person has and will find ways to inject into threads no matter what the topic of the thread. The person woke up that morning still obsessed with what they spent all day thinking about until bedtime. It's their current agenda; it's what they have to think about until they got through it. Coming online to read forums becomes the excuse to find openings for that single interest, and so you can be asking about the price of tea in China, or, more likely here, who should pay for tea when dating in China, and the person on their single minded mission, whose focus remains steadfast on their pet interest, will see some way to bridge the gulf between tea dates and why the Republicans are bad for ethanol production, as an example. You could ask here why do butterflies prefer wine to molasses and the answer from the obsessed person would pick up on the fact that wine is an alcoholic beverage, from there to ethanol, and the Republicans take another hit. If you asked about sex being better or worse day or night, they might reply about how daylight favors organic growth and give the example of corn, used in the production of ethanol, against which the Republicans should be blamed for known to be antagonists. If you parse that seemingly wandering path away from the posted topic you'll often find it leads reliably back to whatever it is at the center of that person's focus, thread after thread, day after day, and no doubt because of the effects of inhaling fumes created by the use of gasoline that does not have a sufficiently high ethanol content mixed in, thanks to those damned Republicans. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 7/27/2009 5:13:13 PM | Oh! Where? Where shiny thingy?
focus...focus....ok...steady now.....what was I gonna say?
Oh yeah...well..some of us have a talent to tie in a certain theme to almost any topic....so we like to put our two cents n somewheres. Some people can make a "Star Trek tie to almost any topic, I can tie in boobs, (which the 'powers that be' kinda questioned me on once, but hey...they didn't ban me!) Also, sometimes, the main idea loses some of its impact when the implied "proofs" or ideas are being kicked out from under it by destabilizing the supporting structures. It may seem "off topic"...but may have merit in the conversation.
I got a cat here.
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 10/29/2009 2:33:42 PM | Yes! they have, and I'm the worst!
not really, but frontal attacks are so ! crass
In a thread such as "Joe Wilson is an embarrassment and he lied"
Would it be perceived off topic as to "why" he might have lied?
I think not ~ I would think any light that could be offered about , the embarrassment, Joe Wilson or the Lie germane. That includes who employees Joe Wilson and the job title might entail. Perhaps Lying is part of the job. That he works for the State of South Carolina as a elected representative opens the door to South Carolina ~~ so he lies for South Carolina.
But why? ~ well, I tell you why. ~~~~~~~
but nobody wants to hear this ~ they don't really care !
But that's not really true. ~~ For the real thinkers do ~
So let's talk about " embarrassment!
We haven't loss the ability ~ people just want to throw their rock and run!
But in a bar setting ~ staying on topic in totally impossible.
dance | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 11/2/2009 10:51:26 PM |
Has our modern society lost the ability to focus? Has anyone noticed you can start a discussion here and many people will get so sidetrack on small issue of the thread and not discuss the main topic intended ? Do many people need to go back to English101 to try to understand identifying the main topic?
o many readers "read so much into a small statement" and totally not pay attention to what was said?
Modern society does not have a problem regarding intellectual focus. In fact, in respect to current levels of intelligence and literacy, modern Western society is at the highest level ever. There are more literate, educated people than ever before.
It is normal for a discussion of ideas to go from one point to another. For one idea to lead to another. That is what makes discourse interesting and potentially exciting. The firm adherence to the specific topic is what makes discourse dull and limited. If the discussion goes off on a sidetrack, that is really as it should be, because ideas lead to other ideas, and so on. It can be effective if the side track leads back to the main topic, but it is not necessary.
Oftentimes, howeve,r people do not "pay attention to what was said" and this can lead to miscommunication or to someone making a point that is completely irrelevant to what has just been said. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 11/3/2009 7:21:50 AM | | It's not a "focus" or a "language" problem, it's a respect issue. Fewer people care less what anyone else has to say besides themselves as the concepts of the Golden Rule and walking a mile in someone else's moccasins have long died out. | |
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| Lost the ability to focus?
Posted: 11/3/2009 9:56:19 AM |
Old post, never mind. Did you have trouble focusing? LOL (just teasing you :-) | |
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