Last two weeks with the second wave spreading, most of us were avoiding the social media so that in some way the bad news could be kept at bay. It was a form of survival. It still is. Sometimes, I don’t know what to do with messages which led me to discover that emojis are sufficient and acceptable form of communication and that I don’t have to write my epic long messages in reply! I mean, honestly, it takes a lot of creativity to think about what to write and takes too much time to draft, edit, sensitize it so that no one gets hurt and message is sent. It’s a lot of work. Although, this brings me to what I am writing about today- a concept called ‘attention economy’ which is being propagated by Mark Manson (Author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, my fav. fav. book (Yes one ‘fav.’ will not communicate my love for this man’s writings)) and that what is required is to develop an ‘attention diet’. There is just so much crap these days to pay attention to. Therefore, it becomes important to see what is worth paying attention. As Mark Manson would go on to say, What should we give a fuck about?
So he starts by saying just as junk food screwed our bodies, junk information is screwing our emotions and mind. Therefore, the need for nutritive information and relationships. So anything nutritive would basically mean that it encourages deep thoughts and extended thoughts and it is not shallow i.e. to fill up space. Relationships here would mean where there is mutual trust, who help you get out of your insecurities and help you grow. You know that feeling of you-know-what-I-mean-right! It’s pretty much like all the Ketos and No-Carbs and GM diets kinda thing or the current fad- Intermittent Fasting! The idea is that just like any other diet, if your attention diet is easy then it’s not really cutting out all that junk!
So for me, I hate twitter. I don’t like doing anything there because people are just waiting to fight. I Heart LinkedIn. It will always be my fav. Facebook is just a way to remember birthdays and Insta, Oh Lord! Don’t get me started on it. I follow only a few accounts (even though I am following nearly 700 accounts, but in my defense, I don’t really follow-follow them) and most of the time I don’t quite understand the feed because, one post is so similar to the other, it is as if all posts are cloned. My trouble is Whatsapp. Work happens on Whatsapp but you go on it to talk to one person and end up talking to like a zillion people because, that shitty thing shows you are online and how dare you not reply!
Then the news apps, I mean with all the bias laden news, one cannot objectively think. Either you are left or right of the center but you can never be center-center, you know what I mean right! If only news can go back to being boring and fact-based, I think it will make much more sense leaving us to analyze on our own instead of a second-hand analysis being forcefully fed to us.
This brings me to a very crucial point. I was having terrible sleep in Week One of Curfew. I was averaging about 2-3 hours of sleep and absolutely feeling lower than the bellybutton of 18-legged centipede. I took pills for 2 nights but that affected my workout and that was BAD. So I started to switch off my mobile phone and keeping it in the lobby of the house instead of carrying it to my bed. And there it is, solid 7 hours of sleep has made its way back into my life. Oh and also switching off the notifications has helped me get back a lot of my life. As Manson describes it, notifications are like second hand smoke of attention and I can’t tell you how true that is!
So honestly I realized, I actually can do away with my FOMO because there is actually nothing that I miss out on. If there is something I am missing out, there are one too many generous people who make it their business to bring all of that to my notice, although I get to choose the time for it. Smart Alec I am, Ain’t I? And if I do miss out on something, so what! May be it was not important after all!
You can read more about Attention Diet on Mark Manson’s website: https://markmanson.net/attention-diet
Pallavi Pratap 