Denny’s Deliberations:
I have been watching a new Dutch television show over the past few weeks, which is
called “Going back to the year XXXX”. In this show, local celebrities are spending time
together with their family back in the days when they grew up. Everything in that show
is set-up to represent some time decades ago; the house, the clothes, drinks and food,
entertainment, technology, news, etc. And to make this experience real, all modern-
day equipment like mobile phones, iPads and navigation are taken away from the
family during this time.
The show is entertaining, because it brings back a lot of memories when you watch it.
You may recognise a lamp from your parent’s old house, the car that the neighbours
used to drive, the first record you ever bought, or the favourite doll of your little niece.
And as you listen to the celebrity parents sharing their memories, you’re inclined to
think back about your own Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings back in those days.
But the most interesting thing about this show, I think, is how people perceive living
the lifestyle of the old days. One thing they all seem to agree on, is that life was SO
SLOW! No matter how far you go back in time, people have never been living their life
at today’s speed, as they simply didn’t have access to all the modern-day technology,
tools and information available to us today. And whilst most modern inventions are
designed to make our lives easier and free up our time, in actual fact they allow us to
make our lives more complex, more hectic and more demanding!
Where families used to gather together around the TV to watch one show without
breaks for an entire evening, these days we all watch our own shows on separate
devices and we stay connected with the rest of the world via social media
simultaneously, with frequent (commercial) breaks in which we check the news,
(un)load the washing machine, answer a few (work?) mail or calls, plan our next
holiday and do some online shopping! We are multitasking all the time, in our efforts
to achieve our “must-do’s” and “want-to-do’s” in as short a time as possible. And at
the same time, we are all complaining about how busy we all are.
Not being able to say “No!” is often provided as a reason for why we all are so busy.
But is that true? And if yes, then who should we say No! to? To all others? Or…
perhaps… maybe… to ourselves?
Happy reading!
Warmest regards,
Denny
Denny Portier-Terpstra
Editor Amarantine
Volume3 AMARANTINE 1