Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

"We truly live in a "one tweet" world of "information attention"..."

I completely agree with this. And this is precisely why I do not write any more than I do on twitter.

https://twitter.com/setprosports/status/1439631649428344833

There have been numerous times that I have been prompted to write something about "how the body works" in the context of throwing/swinging dynamics; but nixed the effort on the grounds that it would necessarily entail some depth/precision of thought.

A kind of depth and precision that honestly I rarely see on twitter in the domain of throwing/swinging [or in other domain for the most part].

Most of what I see amounts to what I have described [elsewhere and in some detail] as ...."quick tips and hints."] Which CAN help in rare situations and under certain conditions.

But which mostly serve to either confirm or deny one's a priori biases ,i.e., I like this because it confirms what I think; or I don't like it and I probably should stop following this guy.

From my relatively "old school" vantage point, in order to develop even the hope of mastery of complex subject matter, one has to engage in rigorous thought. One has to create sustained focus --beyond their typical manner of thought.

One HAS to be challenged by thoughtful rigorous views that differ from yours views and that really force you to thoroughly explain and defend your views.

THIS kind of process really cannot be realized in the twitter universe. Inherently it requires a much more "long form" [so to speak] mental engagement.

No doubt I am older than the typical twitter user [probably especially true among those who actually post on any kind of regular basis].

Suffice it to say: I've been around for awhile. And that's a good thing in some ways. And a bad thing as well. In that I find myself saying from time to time..."damn I'd love to take about 30 yrs. off my life.. I need more time dammit!"

But. On the other hand---and in the context of Paul's complaint above----I'm am VERY glad that I grew up in an age without the kind of social media we see today.

An age in which me and all my friends played outside and all day without supervision [and moms typically forbade coming home before dusk in the summer].And wherein I grew up reading ACTUAL books.

And it was THAT background that was the predicate to coming across Paul Nyman's website [starting at around 2001] And wherein I spent hundreds of hours immersed in all the many posts and links he created.

Could I have possibly learned as much as I did had I been born 30 yrs. later? And if the info from Setpro was somehow transmitted via twitter???[It is HIGHLY doubtful that his info could have been learned via twitter].

I don't think so. And even if it could have been, had I grown up in the kind of social media world that is now dominated by "Tic Tok" and "infuencers" of Instagram, etc, etc., I likely would have developed a mindset ill-suited for sustained, focused, rigorous, rational thought.

And the kind of mindset that not only welcomes those challenging my thoughts but actually demands challenges to what I think.

Lastly this: Those quite a bit younger than myself might see these thoughts as regards the ills of social media as stale old school laments, e.g., all older generations variously rail against the younger generations. "We get it pops" say the young.

But. Here's what's interesting in this context. According to a number of reports from the NYT's ,et al over the last several yrs. is this fact:

It has been reported that numerous CEO types from Silicon Valley [including Steve Jobs] send their kids to private schools that use exclusively use pen and paper, and that do NOT allow smart phones into the classroom. Think about that.

Think about the implications of those who have invented "new school" technology for all of us peons; but revert to "old school" methods for their own kids.
A simple question: Why?

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