Issue #22: Death by Dope
we're taking a bit too much of this, and we should REALLY slow down ...
my pomodoro is on, I should be doing something else but I just wanted to get this off my chest.
It's nothing new but this is more of a re-realization.
Ezinne Zara said that "social media is just a highlight reel."
“Social media is just a highlight reel.”
Pay attention, I promise this is relevant.
2
my pomodoro is on, I should be doing something else but I just wanted to get this off my chest.
It’s nothing new but this is more of a re-realization.
Ezinne Zara said that “social media is just a highlight reel.”
“Social media is just a highlight reel.”
Pay attention, this is relevant.
You see, when it comes to things that take a long time, most of it isn’t eventful.
You could be doing something for hours on end, and the only truly ‘fun’ parts would be captured in minutes or less.
Things, by its very nature, are meant to be boring.
But you see, boring things are not attention-grabbing.
Social media runs on one currency and one currency alone: attention.
It’s the reason why bad news always goes viral, etc.
But back to attention; social media runs on the stuff so you can’t have boring things on it --- the reason why something might be insightful as fuck but it’d only have 15% (if it’s lucky) of the attention that a busty babe flashing her tits would garner.
So, to capture attention, highlight reels were developed. You get something that’s hours long and strip it down till you find the 2 minutes of fun (sometimes regardless of how you kill the video to reach that result) and you post that result.
Highlight reels are a way for things that are not as aesthetic as a big-breasted woman to survive the cruel universe that is SM, but it has led to another problem: dope.
Not cocaine, in this instance, but dopamine.
With everything being maximally designed to grab attention, we’ve become saturated by dopamine (which is the chemical your brain releases when it finds something interesting and fun).
You were not designed to be constantly saturated with dope, and now you’re paying for it.
Research shows that the average attention span of a person has fallen from 8 seconds (a scary low number) to 3 seconds.
3 seconds.
The average person cannot focus on something for more than 3 seconds.
Death by dope.
You’re oversaturated.
It’s killing your focus.
And given that you’re a Creative who needs to be able to focus and lock in for extended periods of time? It’s killing your future. It’s ruining your potential to do good work.
All because you’re saturated on dope.
You feel it now, don’t you?
The urge to quickly wrap up this little entry and pick up your phone and jump back on Snapchat and view snaps, right?
You’ve been writing for way longer than 3 seconds, haven’t you, you little addict?
Dope, man.
You need to train your focus.
Restore what was lost.
Looking for a way out? I have a suggestion. Something that I’m trying out at the moment.
Set a pomodoro timer for 30 - 45 minutes and force yourself to do something productive during that time, while staying off your phone.
It’s hard asf, but it could work.
It could slowly wean you off the dope, and help you recover all you’ve lost.