His sarcasm is the second best thing. He mostly makes fun of society and himself, which makes his serious comments a bit more lighthearted than they would seem if they were taken out of the context of this commentary. His statistic about deaths and injuries caused by cell phone usage while driving is shocking and disconcerting. Fortunately, Kirn surrounds this and other depressing research by humor.
The commentary is structured in a way that exhausts the reader. I feel that because no words are wasted, the piece can be quickly read. He seemed to have made it read fast paced to reflect an ever-changing and never-slowing society. After I finished reading it, I told myself I would try every now and then to leave my computer in my room and the ice cream carton in the fridge while I'm watching TV. It'll be tough. Commercials are brutal and TV just makes me want to eat. The point is, reading Kirn's commentary did to me exactly what multitasking does to me - wears me out and leaves me yearning to just sit and stare into space while eating my ice cream. Or is that multitasking?
I really liked Kirn's work too. I'm glad he surrounded his research with humor because I couldn't make it through if the commentary was dry and boring. I would just get distracted and end up "multitasking." Nice notes on Kirn's piece!
ReplyDeleteNot wasting words is hard to do. It seems to parallel his desire to not waste time. Good post. LD
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