The Liberation of My Attention

So, the other day I read an article that shocked me into a bit of a “drastic change” mode. It was from The New York Times and was centered around how the big tech companies have developed their products so that they capture our attention and it is causing unprecedented levels of attention failure as well as distraction with concentrated focus levels at an all time low. Maybe over the last year or two, feelings of resent have been brewing inside of me towards my phone and I think this article really drove home the impact it may be having on my life without me even realising it. I had started to notice that I am unable to focus for extended periods of time on say a lecture at Uni or even when I am watching a TV show; something that traditionally would be seen as similarly mind numbing I can’t even get through the episode without scrolling through my news feed. I think this was particularly worrying for me due to the stage of my life where I am at being I am about to go out into the proper workforce and think I will be at a significant disadvantage if I am disconnected from the real world and unable to stimulate meaningful conversation with people because I spend all of the gaps in my time scrolling.

“The liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time” - James Willems

I decided I will begin to try and turn around the freight train that is the dopamine addiction provided by social media and the likes (pun intended). I removed some of the apps that I thought I used the most to fill gaps in my day: Facebook, AFL Fantasy and my Stock market app (I think I used to go on the last two just for the sake of being on my phone, not good!). So far, I have been pretty good with dealing with the urges to check Facebook on the web browser (need my meme fix!) and I think I will be able to manage by checking the notifications maybe once or twice a day, so I don’t miss out on important information that is conveyed (footy club stuff, events, etc.), just no scrolling! I have found though that old habits are very hard to break and am still almost constantly checking my phone for messages from people, reading through news articles and now checking Steemit (can’t win!). In saying this I’m internally reasoning that these are better at least for now than mindlessly scrolling for hours but still do not want to be buried in the screen all the time. Therefore, my next step is to start focusing on my conversational skills in class or social situations and hopefully this will reduce the feeling of needing to check what is happening with my other connections constantly.

Anyway, I don’t know if this seems like a brag post or whatever I think in a way it might be but my reasoning within my head was to get it out there and maybe see if anyone else is feeling this way or has maybe managed to overcome it. Also, it is easier for me to send this out to a bunch of strangers on the internet compared to people I know (god damn social anxiety). I’ve also included the article below for you to have a read of and see what you think, maybe it will change your life!

Lachie.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/style/how-can-i-focus-better.html