Google is great for finding things and for finding out about things.
YouTube is great for watching and listening to things.
And, as you know, they are actually learning about you.
You know this because each time you interact with them – as if like magic – they show you things that are extensions of and related to what you’ve done before.
All very clever.
Because I like Portishead, they think I’ll like Zero 7 too.
And they’d be right.
Window versus Windscreen.
The problem comes when we use these tools as windscreens and not windows.
By ‘windscreen’ I mean using Google, YouTube and the Internet at large as the main way to learn about or experience things.
By ‘window’ I mean using Google, YouTube and the Internet at large for a quick and infrequent search, recreational break or support for my work.
We ‘peep’ through windows.
Windscreens, within this metaphor at least, are all we look through as we go on life’s journey.
Dull.
Think about it…
In this short life of yours if you spend too much time with Google and YouTube etc. as your windscreen, you will only ever experience the familiar in life.
That’s far too comfortable.
And dull.
Surely you deserve more?
These tools will have you shuffling a little to the right.
A little to the left.
A little to the right again.
Christ!
That’s not what life’s about.
Turn Them Off.
Turn them off.
Don’t let them be the compass that keeps you chugging along in pretty much the same direction as you’re going already.
Stop shuffling.
Start str-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ding.
In new directions.
SCARY, adrenaline-pumping directions
Historyless.
Fresh.
New.
Let the adventure begin!
