Thursday, April 25

Tag: nothing

Is ‘Doing Nothing’ A Form Of Resistance, An Indulgence Or All The Rage For The Lucky Few?
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SELF

Is ‘Doing Nothing’ A Form Of Resistance, An Indulgence Or All The Rage For The Lucky Few?

The pandemic has either created too much free time or too little. Kitchen-table commutes and reduced social obligations expand mornings and weekends for some, while caretakers and gig workers are exhausted by the constant, overlapping demands of home and work. It’s no surprise, then, that idleness is trending. Concepts like “niksen,” Dutch for “doing nothing,” and “wintering,” resting in response to adversity, have entered the wellness lexicon. Doing nothing is even being called a new productivity hack, aligning the practice with an always-on culture that seeks to optimize every waking minute. While such prescriptions largely target the privileged who have the resources to curate their schedules, idleness can also be a form of resistance to the capitalist machine. Artist Jenny Odell’s be...
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The Ruthless Pursuit Of Online ‘Likes’ Gives You Nothing
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WORK

The Ruthless Pursuit Of Online ‘Likes’ Gives You Nothing

Imagine a popular social media channel that did not display the number of “likes,” mentions, impressions, followers, engagements or any other metric to show how many times one’s content has been viewed, by whom and when. A flourishing “how-to” industry has arisen dedicated to increasing “counts” on social media, while also claiming this is the silver bullet to becoming more popular, rich and famous. You can purchase the services of click-farms to artificially increase your like-counters. This potentially increases your content’s chances of being cross-syndicated, appearing higher up in newsfeeds and possibly meaning the ability to convert “online social wealth” into material wealth. In other cases, approbation markers such as likes can be used to generate popularity or condemnation of a...
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Sick of Black Friday? Help others Buy Nothing
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SELF

Sick of Black Friday? Help others Buy Nothing

In 1992, the Seinfeld episode “The Pitch” featured this conversation between the main characters: JERRY: And it’s about nothing? GEORGE: Everybody’s doing something, we’ll do nothing. JERRY: So, we go into NBC, we tell them we’ve got an idea for a show about nothing. A show about nothing may seem ludicrous, but what about a Black Friday that involves making no purchases? Yet, the Buy Nothing Project, founded in 2013, is a contrasting movement in an era when Black Friday is viewed as a day to buy everything. The Facebook-anchored project focuses on sharing existing items with others as a way to: ‒ Get to know neighbors and others within a community. ‒ Keep unwanted items from ending up in a landfill. ‒ Meet specific needs of others. ‒ Provide gently used or new items that can be gi...
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Get to know Niksen: The art of doing nothing
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CULTURE

Get to know Niksen: The art of doing nothing

Niksen means doing nothing or, more specifically, performing an action without a clear purpose or a deadline There is the Japanese way to organize - KonMari - the Danish way to establish a cozy home - hygge - and the Swedish way to live a balanced life - lagom. Apparently, there is also the right way to do nothing, thanks to the Dutch and niksen. Interglot.com’s Dutch to English translation of niksen is: “idle; lounge around; sit around; do nothing much ...” In essence, according to dutchreview.com in 2018: “Niksen means doing nothing or, more specifically, performing an action without a clear purpose or a deadline. For instance, for the Dutchies, looking out the window as people pass or going to the beach to stare at the waves for a while is considered niksen. And by doing so, they o...
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