Being "In The Moment" in a World of "Checking In"

There's a term they use in acting a lot. They talk about how important it is to be "in the moment." It was one of the most difficult things for me to do as an actor; kind of like Zen, I suppose, where you reach a higher state of self by being selfless. Be in the moment by forgetting you're trying to be in the moment.

Very difficult.

Today, in this age of texting and the Internet and Facebook and Twitter, “in the moment” has come to mean something else altogether. We’re never really in one place anymore. We are sitting at the bar with our friends, but we’re also “checking in” on Facebook, letting all our friends know where we are.

By the way, at this moment, my friends are at Key Bar, the Purdy Lounge, 10^th St. & Avenue C, the W Hotel in Austin, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and many other places. I checked in a few hours ago, while hanging out with a friend at the Flying Saucer. As soon as I did it, I asked myself, “Why the fuck would anybody care that I’m at the Flying Saucer?”

I guess in a way this was already beginning to happen in 1992 when I taught my first classes at Satellite Academy. The thing back then was pagers. All the cool kids had one. And the more you got “beeped,” the more popular you were.

That beeper took my students, and me, out of the moment. Of course it’s nothing compared to what’s happening with smart phones now. It’s so prevalent, it has changed pedagogy. There are articles in EdWeek and elsewhere written by people grasping for classroom applications for the devices their students already have in their pockets. It’s a total “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality.

Some time in the mid 1990’s, my colleague, Neil Tabot and I were discussing something his office. I noticed that he would periodically look up at his computer screen as we talked, go over to it, watch the print scroll, and then type something.

“What’s that you’re doing?” I asked.

“I’m in a chat room about sea life,” he said.

I took a closer look and saw that there were people interacting with Neil and each other about, yes, sea life. It was the first time I’d ever heard of a chat room. I remember finding it odd that I was expected by Neil to share his time with this scrolling computer screen of people typing about plankton, or whatever. Perhaps the worst part of it was the realization that he found what they were saying much more intriguing than whatever our topic was. (I think we were paired up as “critical friends,” and had been visiting each other’s classrooms. This was our time to discuss what we’d witnessed.)

Right now, as I write this, I am in the moment with you, my imagined reader, rather than sleeping in my bed, where I’m supposed to be.

And now some wonk at Facebook has invented the “check in” feature. Maybe it’s their attempt to get us to appreciate where we are in that moment, rather than clicking our way across the world wide web and back again.