Competition to Occupy Your Attention
Take a little break and think of that time when you are away from your mobile/laptop/iPad for more than 1 hour. Most probably you will feel very anxious during that time.
Have you ever imagined yourself living in a village without any of these devices?
We all are so addicted to these devices that we cannot live without them.
When we are watching any show, we still use our mobile phone because our ability to focus on one task is depleted. We want more and more entertaining content to satisfy our hunger.
Our ability to focus for long durations is becoming rare and rare. With each notification we are destroying our attention. Companies have 1000s of engineers, who work very hard, so that they can occupy our attention. It is the business model of companies these days. We simply cannot blame companies for this. It should be us who decide which thing will use our attention, not these companies because in the end these companies will not feed you.
Do you ever wonder how companies like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok etc earn millions?
The answer is they use our attention to earn. If they earn billions from our attention then think what we can do if we use our attention wisely.
According to a study, the average time for which a person can focus is only 40 seconds. Seriously, I think we can do much better than that.
Every notification disturbs our focus and it takes nearly 24 minutes to focus again.
For a moment think of those people who live before the discovery of the internet. What do they do throughout the day? How do they survive without the internet? How do they commute?
If the Internet was discovered at that time then we are not able to advance in science and technology. This statement might feel contradictory but think about it.
People these days are so addicted to dopamine kick that they feel depressed if the dopamine release is not higher than the previous one.
I am not saying that you should not use social media, mobile, laptops or Internet. These technologies are a necessity in today's world but use them wisely.
The Internet is the best thing that has happened to human society but don't let this technology control you.
In the end, your mind is your only Asset which helps you to define your path to success.
