LA Opera is offering free Simon Boccanegra dress rehearsal tickets to people who want to go and tweet or do whatever it is they do online … and as tempting as that would be, I would find it terribly distracting to be doing anything with social media if I was really listening to an opera. Posting before, during intermissions, and after would work for me. But when I’m listening I prefer to keep my phone off.

I sound like a grumpy old lady, I know, but I fear we are losing the ability to focus on one thing and focus well. I sure know I am. When I “watch” TV, I have a the MacBook on my lap and I’m working on photos or looking things up. Sometimes a show will pass me by nearly completely before I realize it’s over and I don’t know what happened! Then again, I do justify watching TV by trying to do something a wee bit productive at the same time. Call me silly, but I feel guilty just watching the tube.

I am trying, though, to go back to focussing when I do other things.

When I first started walking I tried listening to music via the iPhone. What I found was that I got lost in the music and neglected to really see anything around me. So never mind listening when I’m walking. I want to see things! When I read a book music is off so I can pay attention to the words. And recently — gasp! — I decided to stop taking food photos because when I go out to dinner I really should just put the darn phone away. (We’ll see how I do on that, but now that I’ve publicly written this I’ll probably be a good girl and keep the phone in the purse). I need to do one thing at a time, for the most part.

Side Note: In music, though, it seems we are doing a ton of things at once … I suppose that’s the epitome of multi-tasking! Counting, listening, reading, fingering notes, watching, expressing, switching gears when something goes awry … the list goes on and on.

But back to LA Opera. Yeah, part of me is annoyed by the “tweet & listen” idea. But I wonder if I’d have applied if I lived closer and was able to get to the event. Hmmm. I’ll bet I’d cave and apply! I’m fickle that way.