What do you give your conscious attention to?
Multi-tasking was once the trend. A slew of articles claimed that multi-tasking individuals were productive and efficient humans. While we lived the delusion, science did its research and has now informed us that multi-tasking is a myth. Research shows that we happen to flit from task to task quickly but multi-tasking is not what the brain can handle. Answering your mail, talking on the phone and trying to watch television simply means that you are darting from one task to another quickly without focusing on any single one.
We place a premium on speed and accuracy when trying to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. This goal is usually achieved with tasks that don’t need much study. Most people handle superficial tasks with ease. Speed and accuracy suffer when the tasks are more specialized, though. This means we don’t learn much when we try to do many things at once and the brain is unable to focus or get accustomed to deep learning.
“To do two things at once is to do neither.”- Publilius Syrus
Uninterrupted blocks of time are required to understand a subject or to learn a skill. There is no other way to engage in deep exploration. This is increasingly harder to do because our time is sliced up, chopped into little bits throughout the day when we are forced to shift our thoughts constantly among competing distractions. Take social media, for instance. It excels in training the brain to flit from topic to topic, distracted by a thousand opinions instead of studying the issue, asking questions and arriving at an opinion before seeking an informed second opinion on it. Worse, it attempts to simplify or abbreviate topics that need far more insight and study.
“Instead of relying on expensive marketing, habit-forming companies link their services to the users’ daily routines and emotions.” – Nir Eyal
Tech design and software are aimed at instant gratification and designed to manipulate you into spending as much time on it as possible. Endless notifications and pings keep us looking down at our phones. A ‘like’ or positive comment from a stranger you’ll never meet brings on a dophamine rush. Someone agrees with you! It provides the validation that many crave for. Excited, we keep going back to the app and doing the same thing, devoting hours of our life to it.
It keeps slicing away your time until you have no time to explore anything else life has to offer except your screen. The screen becomes your life. While there, you get distracted by other feeds or opinions on the way and it takes even longer to return to your original task as you meander through a virtual maze. The human brain is pretty simple – even a simple reward can get it addicted to tech junk, something that designers know and exploit.
“None of most powerful tech companies answer to what’s best for people, only to what’s best for them.” – Tristan Harris
Soon, you can’t live without it although there is not much overall value addition to your life because of your addiction. Still, you are given as much as you want and more to indulge in this virtual world. Why is that? Not because it improves your life but because you are part of the market, the consumer who brings in profit for the app owner.
Attention spans are significantly lower today after years of exposure to social media. There is a belief that even the most complicated concept can be explained in a single sentence. Impatient users are unable to focus long enough to delve into a concept and try to understand it better. Tech takes over your life until it is contained in a smartphone screen, removed from the real world. Stress, lack of sleep, anxiety, depression and a general dissatisfaction with life are linked to excess tech and social media use.
“Every social association that is not face-to-face is injurious to your health” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Is there a way to reclaim the time sliced away by these distractions? Instead of relying on willpower and yourself, treat it like the addiction it is. Ask for help from trusted sources because it is not going to be easy to wean yourself away from the tech monster. Be vigilant. Set aside specific times to go on social media and don’t access it otherwise. Let others know that you are attempting to reclaim your time. Making yourself accountable to others will help you heal faster.
Simplify your screen. Is your screen crowded with apps and games? Junk most of your tech junk including unnecessary gadgets, programs, apps and games. Delete everything except the core apps you need. Avoid mindfulness apps because they are designed to slice away at your time too. A better way to develop mindfulness would be to attend an in-person session, phone-free.
Snatch the time you have reclaimed and consciously monitor how you spend it. Use it to learn what you always wanted to learn, but never seemed to have time for; connect with a friend; get some sun on your face instead of hiding indoors; read a print book; do the many routine chores you had no time for. Use that time to get fitter and happier instead of losing yourself in a virtual, non-existent world that makes you feel inadequate. Stretch and look up instead of constantly looking down at your phone.
You become what you give your conscious attention to. Bingeing on tech junk is as unhealthy for your mind as bingeing on fast food is for your body. Are you becoming the person you;d like to be by immersing yourself in a virtual world that exploits your emotions and manipulates your behavior? Are you so immersed in a little screen that you hardly have time to look up and absorb the wonderful flavors of the world around you?
What do you give your conscious attention to?
“Distracted from distraction by distraction.” – T.S. Eliot
