Distraction

Contrary to what we all would like to believe, the average attention span of human beings is a mere 4 minutes! Unbelievable it may sound but it has been scientifically proven. Has our attention span always been so meager? Studies show that it has declined over the past few decades. Electronic devices and social media are usually cited to be culprits for this decline. There may be some truth in this observation. People of all ages are now hooked to their cell phones. They are constantly engaged in sending texts, vexing over not receiving any 'likes', getting annoyed when people do not take calls or your profile does not elicit any response from desired quarters. Newer apps keep popping every year and more and more people get drawn to them. This is truly obnoxious. Social media is perhaps an avenue for people who have identity problems to vent out. This electronic form of expression allows them to unabashedly bring forth their narcissistic selves with gay abandon. People give a 'like' to any post with the expectation of reciprocity. Why do we seek validation about how we look or more importantly how we feel from others? Emotions like happiness and sorrow are supposed to be very private only to be shared with your loved ones. I am not sure how posterity will look at this obsession of sharing everything that happens in your life on social media. Everyone is happy on Facebook. People vent out their frustrations and anger about the system on Twitter making it a very toxic place to be (even more so if you follow the wrong kind of people). Instagram is ideal for narcissistic people who care for no one but themselves. Everyone is super successful and employable on LinkedIn. Everyone makes an ass of themselves on TikTok! How is it even remotely funny?

Anyway, this rant about social media is my favourite. Coming back to my premise of Distraction, I think human beings have always been cursed with this anomaly. Parents have been admonishing children to study harder ever since the written word was discovered. In fact evidence has been found in 2000 year old Roman scripts where the teacher laments about the grammar mistakes children made in their writings. Employers have been driving employees harder and harder at work. Sleeping or chatting at work is frowned upon and rightfully so. Everyone of us would have found our minds wander during a longish lecture. After a while we forget what the lecture is all about. Mugging up during exams saves us ultimately. This curse of getting distracted is prevalent at home, at work, in sports, while trying to sleep, while having sex, reading a book, while driving... in short we are distracted throughout the day. I was distracted at least 10 times when I started to write this small essay. This anxiety of what my friends on various Whatsapp groups are posting, how is the sensex performing, will I get tea on time today afternoon, will I get the coveted project soon, how may be our recovery and many other subjects keep fighting for attention. Writing this piece has forced me to shun all other thoughts and focus only on the task at hand. Good work can be achieved only and only through deep, focused work. All this reading of various mental models that I have been doing for the past two years would yield no dividends if I am unable to train my mind to FOCUS. Writing is akin to meditation. And I have to take myself to a level where I would be able to finally conquer my fleeting mind.

I sure do hope to achieve this soon.