Struggle for attention
From the title and picture and your precious 2 seconds, you have already made a perception in your mind about what this article might be, and it’s not worth your time. Probably because these days, anything that takes more than 15 seconds of your time is too long for you
With the image of a cute dog, you might be thinking is this article about dogs? Is this about how your cute little pet is struggling for your attention? Well, I just tricked you, it’s not at all about dogs.
Nowadays dog picture seems to be the only thing that can hold your attention this far, so I just used it to catch your attention and hold it just a little longer than 15seconds
Still here?
Really? It’s past 15 seconds, more than your insta stories or reels, it’s too much time already, go now jump to the next post or next reel.
No?
Finally, I got your attention! Thank heavens that you stayed here. Now, let’s get to what I have to share with you.
Generation of Content Consumers
We are a generation of content consumers.
Swipe up, wait 2 seconds (10 seconds if you like what’s on screen), Swipe up, Swipe up, home button, open Facebook, swipe up, swipe up, home button, open tinder, swipe left, swipe left, swipe right, home button, open Instagram again.
Does it sound like you? Well, then you are not alone. I am like you too, but with a recent realisation, a little more self-restraint, and a pinch of self-awareness(maybe)
We are so mindlessly scrolling feeds that we don’t even stop to take a moment and listen to what our mind is speaking to us, or what our family members have to say to us(they are probably too in this loop).
Content is the new drug
It’s a virtual drug. We take it to numb our mind after a tiring workday, in a lonely night, or on solitude-filled days. It’s such a beautiful one that we don’t even realise we are addicted to it. We are consuming it to numb our senses, feel & see the things that we otherwise can’t find in our mundane life(or can you?)
While all of us are consumed by the drugs, the interaction with our near and loved ones is experiencing a slow death.
Soul struggle for attention
While we spend countless hours a day looking at the lives of bloggers or praising the content these creative people put out every day on Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, the real human interaction is facing a slow death.
We have very limited time in a day, approximately 3–4 hours only, excluding all work, sleep, and day-to-day chores. Most of us choose to spend this time scrolling feeds, ignoring what our mind is telling us to do. We ignore the things our heart wants to do right now, maybe some baking tutorial we wanna share, books we want to read, and even things we want to say to the world through our blogs(Yep, that’s me).
Our soul is craving for our attention, but our focus span has reduced to 15 seconds and anything that takes more than that is just not possible for us to make time for.
We are letting our mind being consumed by this content drug and we are not letting it speak its own content or listen to what our friends, family, or loved ones have in their heart to share.
If we realise, our loved ones and our soul is competing for our attention against these imaginative creators from across the world, it’s a global competition for our attention.
If we keep ignoring our soul’s call for attention, we might one day forget to speak our mind, do things we want, and only be consumed by the content.
Another Productivity Blog?
Okay, no am not going to be just another productivity blog. I will just give you some options that might help you give some attention to your soul or your loved ones.
Restrict your time on consumption and give some to content creation
- Set a timer for these applications on your phone(Yes, it exists, go search app timer in your Android/iOS phones).
- Now, the extra time you squeezed from your day, spend it on either learning something you have been wanting to do for some time or create some content that your expressive visionary mind can’t wait to share with the world.
Talk! Talk to humans, they are craving for your attention too. They just don’t know yet
Other persons in your life might also be craving your attention, some don’t even know that yet. Probably, because they are too busy being fed to the infinite content. Once in a while, it is very important to shut down your virtual world and talk to real humans in your life, listen to what they have to share, maybe they are not creative enough to share on social media but still, each of us have a tsunami of thoughts that we crave to speak to our loved ones.
Work in chunks of time. It’s better than not doing anything at all
Living in a world of Twitter, Instagram stories and many other short posts type content, our focus attention span has reduced to around 15–30 seconds. Now, it will be difficult to work completely against this newly learned behavior and spend hours reading or working on something that will take effort from your side too(unlike consuming content).
To work with this new behavior, try to do your desired work in some chunks of let’s say 10–15 mins. So, instead of opening Facebook, you keep the book you want to read on your table and read it or study some new blog on the internet. This is not as productive as focussed work for 45–60mins but it’s much better than not doing anything at all. Also, it’s a start! Slowly your focussed period of work will increase and you will be creating content instead of being consumed by it.
