Attention deficit and doom scrolling are two problems we face. It slowly grows in us to a point where we feel a kind of numbness that never existed. I recently watched a DW documentary called “How the internet warps our emotions”. A must watch for us all. You can search for it on YouTube.
Recently I also heard Carl Newport talk about something interesting, He says we should read daily, start with few pages and reach at least 20 pages a day. Also go for a 20 minute walk everyday, alone and without listening to any music or podcasts or anything. Just to be with ourselves and our thoughts. Without any interference.
I do read daily. Sometimes after dinner and sometimes when I go to sleep. But I never have a set number of pages. The ritual has been to open a book and read for sometime every day. Recently I have taken up a project to read all the Booker prize winners and explore at least one book by as many writers as I can.
The project started because I decided to quit reading non fiction completely for some time. I have been reading way too much non fiction that it was taking away the joy of reading. It was too much information overload for me.
I needed some quality time with stories and imagination and fantasy more than data interpretations, sociology, psychology, optimization and productivity. Fiction can be a good solution.
Past week, I had taken 3 days off from work to get a 6 day weekend with the 4th of July. We decided to drive down to Petaluma and laze around there for 4 days. But we had to cut short the trip as I developed a pinched nerve on my right arm and had to go to the urgent care. My first visit to the urgent care.
I am OK now, but when you call the doctor’s office they ask if you have chest pain or short of breath to rule out any other problems. When we are asked the same thing many times, we become conscious and start feeling all the symptoms. Just being human 😁
On the way to Petaluma we had stopped at a used bookstore and for the price of three I got 23 books. A pretty good deal.
Now hopefully, I can convert some of my scrolling time to reading time. I think we need to bring back that human boredom into our lives. The boredom that existed before we had smart phones. When we stood in lines waiting and chitchatting and observing and thinking. The boredom that forced us to explore our surroundings.
Yes, we need to bring back that boredom in order to escape the numbness that social media doom scrolling can create in us.
Social Media is here to stay and we are all being influenced by algorithms. Our behavior, desires, emotions. The responsibility is ours to manage ourselves. It is not easy because no one will accept they spend too much time on scrolling.
We all want to believe we are in control when we are not. If so I think we should all be able to read and walk daily without digital interference. 🥰
Penpositive 
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