April 20, 2016 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
04:27
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Some of you may have noticed that I recently did a nine-day total online shutdown. | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| For nine all-too-brief days, I did not look at my phone, I did not check email, I did not look at Twitter, and I did not open Facebook. | ||
| I also did not open Snapchat, but that was mainly because I couldn't figure it out. | ||
| Instead, I took the time and escaped for a belated honeymoon and an overdue vacation in Cabo, Mexico. | ||
| Most of my time there was spent laying on the beach, staring out into the ocean, and drinking copious amounts of mojitos. | ||
| I got a little mojito hint for you, by the way. | ||
| Just get it without the sugar. | ||
| You don't lose much in taste, and you'll save a lot in health. | ||
| Anyway, besides learning this lesson about mojitos, I also had a vital revelation. | ||
| Taking a break from the online madness is not only incredibly important, I now view it as absolutely necessary. | ||
| Think about how much time we all spend staring into this little device. | ||
| We check work emails when we're with loved ones, we Instagram pictures of food so it looks tastier than it is, and we live tweet the minutia of our lives. | ||
| To be 100% clear, I am guilty of all of these things to varying degrees, and I've been working hard to control this ever-growing online beast. | ||
| It's not just the silly, often egocentric things that we're doing online, though. | ||
| It's also the real-world events that we're missing out on while we stare into that little black mirror. | ||
| When I wasn't staring into the ocean or the skylight or when I was on the beach, I did plenty of people watching. | ||
| I saw people from all ages, probably from about 8 years old into their 70s, just staring down at their phones almost all day long. | ||
| People were ignoring their friends and family around them and totally missing out on the amazing ocean view that they paid to have right in front of them. | ||
| One afternoon, I actually spent about two hours watching a little kid play dangerously close to the waves while his parents were just sucked into the Matrix the whole time. | ||
| Actually, much of the experience did remind me of the movie The Matrix, where we, the humans, are really just batteries for this digital world. | ||
| We might not be quite there yet, but we're certainly on our way. | ||
| Or, actually, maybe we are there and we don't even know it yet. | ||
| I guess I'm just waiting for Morpheus to offer me the red pill, though unfortunately I think most people are going to go blue pill all the way. | ||
| After a couple days being offline, I felt more present, less anxious, and truly freer than I've felt in a long time. | ||
| When I got back and I turned my phone on, I had this feeling of dread, like, here we go again, more than anything else. | ||
| Fortunately, I quickly realized, after scanning my emails, checking my Twitter mentions, and scrolling through Facebook, that not much had actually changed without me. | ||
| I missed a couple debates, our Stephen Fry interview went viral for all the wrong reasons, and I got a lot of nice notes from you guys. | ||
| But beyond that, the world just kept spinning even if I wasn't locked into it. | ||
| Of course, we all know the world doesn't stop without us, but it felt good to know that it keeps humming along with the good and the bad, whether or not we're paying attention the whole time. | ||
| Of course, I admit I make my living here, so this is a bit of a catch-22. | ||
| I am here in the online world. | ||
| Not only that, but I do love most of it. | ||
| Having honest conversations about important issues, connecting with you guys, and reshaping my beliefs along the way have become my life's ethos. | ||
| None of that would be possible without this little gadget. | ||
| Despite that, like everything else in life, there's a good and a bad, a yin and a yang. | ||
| A little more balance in life probably never hurt any of us. | ||
| My guest this week is Steven Crowder. | ||
| Like me, Steven is creating his success with an online show with many modes of distribution and by using social media to amplify his voice. | ||
| Interestingly, while I've spent so much of my time trying to fix what I see wrong with my side, the left, Steven has spent much of his time trying to fix what he sees wrong with his side, the right. | ||
| I realize more and more every day the traditional labels of left and right are losing all meaning, and the important piece of the puzzle is finding people who will have a good-faith battle of ideas and let the chips fall where they may. | ||
| Now close all the other apps you have open, ignore the other person in the room with you, and let's have a discussion about politics. | ||
| Or go outside for a breath of fresh air and look up in the stars. | ||
| Though if you do that, please click play on our next video. | ||
| It's all about the clicks these days, you know? |
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