What if Thoreau were tweeting during the couple years spent in his cabin? (“I’m dining on possum with @Emersons! LOL #tastyrodents”) And posting pictures on Facebook. And blogging. And doing video diaries. I wonder if he would have felt the need (or had the time) to write Walden. ‘Course, Henry D. would never have gone in for these distractions. And in fact it might have inspired an essay, right after On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, railing against social media (“That post is best, that posts not at all.”) But then, would anyone even read his print essay nowadays? (A short YouTube clip, maybe.)
Still having to drive into town to get a reliably fast Internet connection. Was during one of these trips that I caught Game 7 between the Canucks and the Blackhawks with a bunch of folk down the road. More of an excuse to crack a couple beers, listen to some seriously entertaining commentary, and be transfixed by images flickering across a broad illuminated screen.