Imagine walking into a room and 50 people come up to you and tell you what’s going on in their life one after the other. Some give you some sort of inspirational quote. Suggest music to listen to. Subject you to so called trends, like showing you a Ghibli version of themselves, evoke a memory of what they looked like in 2016 or tell you how many steps they took that day. It’s a bit much.
No wonder everyone is overwhelmed.
The constant flood of information we are subjected to now would bring any Victorian era gossip queen or king to shame. Opinions are unsolicited and unrequired. I completely and vehemently plead guilty to this as well. However, is this awareness going to make me stop? …Nope.
On the other hand, not having an online presence could be equated with living underground, in a bunker with no windows under the guise of self-preservation like cave men used to. They too realized eventually that the need to socialize was important. This led to them exploring the world and voila! We’re here today.
Considering that the brain has evolved much faster than the body.[1] We are capable of processing large hordes of information, but is that what we really want to do?
Yes and no, who am I to say?
Another great and unique trait of human beings is that we are highly equipped for decision making. Inherently we know what is good for us. We get ‘the ick’ when we know we’re not meant for something. Or the sudden burst of excitement we get about a candle making class that everyone told you was boring, but you still feel like going to anyway.
Some might say that the problem doesn’t lie in the overload. It is in our capacity to handle it. If we choose to be mindful about it. Set time limits. Ban it. Like Australia did with smartphones for teenagers[2]. Make it illegal. Let the profiteering from human attention and behaviours find other ways to thrive.
Maybe there is some hope.
In this case it may lead to an increased black-market demand for human interaction online. When you take away a thing forcefully it makes people want it more. (The Streisand effect)
The only way to counter it is discipline. In a world where distractions are high and consequences are low; this might sound like too righteous of a path to take.
Discipline is not for everyone and the sooner we accept that the better it will be for some of us. Coming from a generation that generated pollution, on an epic scale methodologically, environmentally, emotionally and globally. Unfortunately.
We have been fixated long enough on an external sense of validation from people we used to know or are trying to know. Blatantly put, even from strangers we will never meet.
Living in hermitage is slightly shunned upon. The only testimony of our existence is given in micro doses through a screen with a blue light filter, if you’re lucky. Presumably put in place by the avatars of our souls, in a simulation of a simulation.
racheetah.com 
Leave a comment