The Rise of Information and Your Focus
The first thing I noticed as I walked in the front door from a 7 week trip, was weeks of newspapers, magazines, flyers and mail that piled up from the mail slot on the door. After unloading the car I sat down to rest and began flipping through the channels on the television. I realized there were over 400 channels, most of which I do not use. After that I spent time scanning Feedly for about 30 minutes and saved articles to read later. My feed has over 100 blogs and websites I get updates from. All this doesn’t include the social networks I manage. If we start talking about email, we would probably double or triple the information we receive on a daily basis. This is just the beginning for most of us. Our relationships require focus as they are a source of information as well. After family, friends, church, work, social commitments and other organizations we all partake in, how do we manage all this information?
For those of us living in the information age it should be no surprise that stress levels are up, and health issues like anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and depression are all high. We have lost focus as an important element of life.
What No One Tells You About Your Attention
I recently watched a group of young adults in a restaurant as they laid their phones face down on the table to see who would pick up their’s first. Yes, it is important to put out phones down so that we can create relationships, but the point I want to make here is that people treat it as a game. I saw another couple at a coffee shop having a pleasant conversation, but then one of them was distracted by their phone. I could see in that moment that the conversation went from pleasant to disappointing and the attention shifted. The talker sat there looking alone while the listener was somewhere else.
The information age has hijacked our brain’s ability to focus, because it is now looking for more stimulation. We crave updates and notifications. We thirst for the groundbreaking news and the things that go viral. There is a need to constantly staying plugged in so you don’t miss a moment. How many times have you retweeted the latest trending topic in the last hour, or liked a photo on Facebook? Information is an addiction that holds your focus and productivity hostage. Phones and tablets have become more valuable and a higher priority than real relationships. But in this age of information, followers, friends and connections do not always equate to real relationships.
The battlefield is a scene of chaos. The winner will be the one who controls both his own an the enemies. – Napoleon Bonaparte
Lives have become hectic and chaotic. No longer do you feel in control of where you’re heading and may have lost sight of your vision and goals. Maybe your mind is clouded and it seeks clarity, but never finds it. Even if it does, obstacles prevent you from finishing what you started. Without focus you cannot pursue the life you were meant to live and fulfill that purpose.
Great post, Kirby. This post is truth in 2015, and my worry is that it will only get worse. This is the first generation that has smart phones around from the time they are born. Constantly being on them even more will most definitely become a way of life. This being said, it will be interesting to see what happens when they are teenagers and what smartphones do to communication skills, as they are already deteriorating. Something to think about…
It’s motivation to keep doing what we do — interjecting some cautions and challenges to the status quo into that media stream. It does seem ironic, but we have to use the culture to reach the culture. You guys are part of doing that!
I see huge differences in my own relationships with siblings who are 12 and 14 years younger than myself. Though whats interesting to me, is we have our challenges because of the different forms of communication we use. I’m not a social media expert, however our young people have found a way to talk to a larger audience than I would have ever imagined. Their ability to connect through social media, collaborate and organize is genius. I think we have to first understand others so we can learn to better communicate and embracing the technology is one but with moderation.
This is something that’s been on my mind lately, as well, Kirby. I wrote two recent blog posts about this very thing. But there’s an undeniable irony to blogging about the need to cut down on information overload, since in choosing to read our articles, people are committing more time to social media and adding more information to that “information overload.” As writers of this sort of thing, we WANT people to read our perspective and encouragement; and yet at the same time, we want them to turn it off and cultivate silence into their lives.
I think it comes down to balance. The Internet, social media, email — they are not evil in and of themselves, any more than enjoying a slice of cake at a celebration will cause obesity. It’s when we make the choice to indulge indiscriminately that such things become addictive and unhealthy.
It is ironic that we use this form of media and its a part of the problem. Your right about balance, it is what we are worst at. Life seems to be a long game of tug of war and sometimes when we get off balance we fall and lose some ground before regaining our footing. I thought about this a lot the last couple days. You have to go where the audience is and for the world it is this funnel of information that has been readily made available. Its a pretty big sea out there with lots of fish. To have your message heard you must be effective at projecting through the crowd. It is a very challenging form of media to use but if we can master it we can use it to help people grow and assist them in making change that improves the quality of their lives.