We Consume Some Things Too Quickly

Do you realise that we consume some images on the internet very quickly?

Recently I came across a short video that I found funny, I had not seen it before. 

I thought I'd show it to my wife, so I went up to her and told her how funny it was.

She looked at it for a while, then she told me that she had seen it six months ago. She didn't even smile.

A little later, I said I'd show her another one, and before I even opened it, she immediately realised what I was going to show her from the cover picture, a little girl had shown it to her recently.

Then I realised that I don't even look at most of the funny videos on the internet, because I've seen them before somehow. 

Those videos don't seem funny anymore, most of them are outdated.

*

Although, since I don't follow such things much, I still come across funny videos, even if they are old.

But whatever kind of memory we have, even if there is only one frame, we immediately remember something we have looked at before, even if years have passed, that video is somewhere deep in our memory and we do not need to look again. 

Because now we have consumed that product!

I guess this is what visual memory is like, frame by frame traces remain in our brains somehow. We don't like to watch the same thing again and again.

***

Is a poem like that? Most of us enjoy reading poems over and over again. Of course, this is for those who love poetry.

Music is also like that, who knows how many times we listen to the same song if it is a song we like. Especially when it is in fashion.

Although, in time, music also goes out of fashion.

We get bored of listening to that old song after a while.

***

However, I also get great pleasure from listening to old songs most of the time. 

When I say this, I have to admit that if I come across an old clip on the internet, I don't really enjoy that clip. 

Of course, there are times when I switch it on just to listen to the song while I'm doing something else, but I enjoy listening to an old song much more.

***

Sometimes I reread an old book, for example, and even though I now know the plot and the ending of that book, each time I read it I get a similar pleasure to the first time I read it, perhaps because I pay attention to a different event, a different character.

A similar feeling applies to some of my favourite films.

Sometimes I watch some films more than once.

But those funny videos I mentioned at the beginning... 

They are really like cookies, they are consumed quickly.  For some reason, you don't want to watch the same funny video again.

***

What about paintings? 

Most of us have an imitation of a painting by a famous painter hanging on the wall at home.

We have one or two landscape paintings, even if they are not by very famous painters.

Who knows how many years we have been looking at the same picture.

We don't even realise the details of the painting anymore, it is just a decor for us on that wall. 

Maybe it has become a habit.

For example, we never think of changing that picture. At least I have never thought of changing the paintings we have.

That picture belongs to that wall, especially if it has taken its place on that wall with a lot of thought, in a sense, that picture has become a habit, it has become a part of that wall.

We also look at some paintings of famous painters with pleasure, even if we don't have them at home. In a museum, a gallery, or a book.

We know who painted that painting, we know the history of that painting if we are curious, and every time we look at that painting, we examine it with the same pleasure.

What do you think is the reason for this behaviour?

Because that painting is a famous painting!

Therefore, its value is different in our eyes. This is probably the reason for this difference in behaviour.

But those funny videos, no matter who shot them, are just everyday funny videos, just a means of daily snack consumption of the consumer society.

Therefore, those funny videos have no meaning in our value judgements, they have already fulfilled their duties, they no longer have any value.

***

This is how the news on channels close to the opposition has become for me now.

On the opposition channels, there is always news about hikes, vilification of the government, complaints. Constant discussions on what will happen to the opposition.

The same leader's complaints with the same intonations from the place where he left by saying "I will never appear on this rostrum again" and "goodbye".

I have not been watching the channels close to the government for a long time, I feel the deep propaganda deeply.

I really get bored of watching channels, I don't even want to watch the news on channels. Even if I habitually switch them on, I switch off all these meaningless channels after a short period of time.

***

So what are we going to do?

We can't do without the news!

It's necessary to follow the country's agenda somehow!

What are we going to do?

On the one hand, life is really hard for people, the cost of living has taken its toll, inflation has increased well, it is not clear where the prices will stop, everything is expensive, everything burns hands.

On the other hand, even those funny videos are boring now.

You want something new, but even if it's new, most of those funny videos are very similar to each other. So even the new ones don't give the old pleasure anymore.

Even old films, especially if I've seen them a few times, make me feel that enough is enough.

I don't like culture and magazine programmes anyway, who did what with whom and where, who came where and how, or how beautiful that city is, there is there, there is here. 

I have watched a lot of programmes about most of the cities, I haven't come across any new ones for a long time.

Documentaries are sometimes good, nature, wildlife. But now we have learnt enough about how lions hunt antelope and their natural lives. Documentaries don't give the same pleasure as before.

There is nothing interesting among the new films either. The last film I saw was The Nightingale of Bursa. Look, that film was really good. I salute dear Ata Demirer from here.

***

In short, my eyes want to see something new, or my ears want to hear something new without my memory reminding me that I know this.

Even some new developments in my own profession do not interest me as much as before. Anyway, in our profession, new developments do not occur that often.

***

I will say that my heart wants a new excitement, but the heart issue that immediately comes to your mind is not a new excitement, but what I long for. In that sense, I am satisfied with my life.

The change that my heart wants is a change that is not in my hands, a change that I can't do anything about, a desire that is unattainable in a sense.

A peaceful life is what I expect.

I don't want to hear lies like, "Look, I'm doing my best, I'm even using Sweden's entry into NATO as blackmail to get the country into the European Union".

Will we be able to enter the European Union?

Should we enter the European Union?

Are we ready to comply with the wishes of the European Union? 

Aren't these nice questions? 

A brand new agenda! Isn't this agenda a good cover for some problems?

What I want to hear is not on the one hand saying that we are a great country, and on the other hand marketing everything we have to Arab countries for two pennies of money. 

Look, now there are rumours that they are going to sell Izmir Port to the Arabs. I hope these rumours are not true.

Or are these rumours true?

On the other hand, daily political polemics are going on, of course, although most of them are empty sophistry, it is good to keep the country's agenda busy with these issues.

The plan seems to be working as desired, members of the press are imprisoned, elected MPs are not taken out of prison. 

On the one hand, a show of strength on many similar issues in domestic politics.

Naturally, the new (!) government imposed the penalty for the recent economic mistakes on the people. 

Tax hikes announced above inflation, mobile phone registration fees imposed from abroad above the minimum wage. Vehicle tax to be collected for the second time...

In short, a country gone mad.

When I hear about such things, I really get depressed.

***

Yes, our cherries are ripe in the dacha.

We'd better go and pick some cherries. 

At least the lady can make jam, we have enough jam for the whole winter from the cherries from those few trees. We make compote with the leftovers.

Anyway, the strawberries give us strawberries all the time, so we'll eat some strawberries too. The jams from the first batch have already been made.

It's the middle of summer, but it's raining. 

Still, there is a lot of work to be done in the garden, the grass has grown and there are places to dig. And it'll be a bit of sport for me.

We'll have a barbecue on the barbecue in the garden. The greens we planted have also grown, rocket, parsley, lamb's ear, lettuce, you name it.

We live in the dacha for a while, in the house for a while, we go back and forth like this, here and there. 

It's not a problem because it's close. We have recently discovered the way to the suburban station anyway, now we can get off the train almost in front of the door for the price of a one and a half hour train journey in the city. 

With a short stroll through the forest, we can be in the dacha when we want and at home when we want.

Isn't that enough of home rest? 

Come on, if the weather permits, it's dacha time again! Let's breathe some fresh air.

Love and regards to everyone from Moscow.