The one thing that the modern world lacks today
Strap your shoes, we’re going outside. Ahh, the nice fresh air feels nice. Look around you. What do you see? Nice trees, greenery, buildings, and of course, people? What are these people doing? Some out of all are on their phones, instead of enjoying the outdoors. Maybe they are doing some work, or attending a meeting. Perhaps they are simply just chatting, or playing a game. While this has become the new normal to see outside, it’s only when you really take time to take a step back and understand the impact of readily available mind-junk food has done to us.
Here’s a fun, or I should say, not too much fun activity for you. Try to last a day without your cellphone. It might sound easy at first, but of course, doing the actual challenge is much harder. Constant urges flood your mind. You want to check your phone. What if my friend messaged me about a surprise get-together? What if I just missed out on the new crypto-coin blowing up recently? You get the idea. Our mind is so used to being fed information that we never take some time to actually confront our thoughts, and more importantly, become at peace with them.
Don’t get me wrong, I am also not high and mighty here, I too am an Internet addict, I will wholeheartedly admit that. I have overindulged on the internet so much that when the internet goes out of order once in a blue moon, I actually feel like something is very wrong. That is why I am trying to remove this addiction that is severely affecting me.
You might hear people saying that internet addiction is actually not a thing, but our minds love information. Information has the ability to make your brain focus on one thing only. It just goes “Aha, look at me, I’m so shiny and important. Pay attention to me now!”, and many people unfortunately fall for this, because they don’t know how to say no mentally to thoughts such as these.
Having an always connected smartphone in your pocket at all the time sure has helped us humans with connectivity and advancing into the next age, but it also affects how we think. Your attention is divided between what you feel in the present moment and all the various streams, or rather, rivers of information that come from the Internet. This division is so apparent that now it has become a daily thing where your mind is used to it, so hence, there arises a difficulty to concentrate and also another dependence on this extra information leading to an addiction. People such as myself use the internet to cope with life issues instead of doing real work that can help you get it over with.
So, what now? How do we combat this issue plaguing both you and me? It’s you versus the thousands upon thousands of software engineers, who are trying to keep you hooked on to Instagram, YouTube etc just one second longer. We will not allow this.
First method to get your thinking power back is to quit social media. Keep it gradual and have patience. This addiction that you have built up over years of use will not disappear in one day where you don’t use your phone.
Second method is the ultimate addiction killer. The one thing that remains shrouded in mystery, and often ignored in daily life. Mindfulness. You seriously don’t have to become a monk or anything for this one to work. Just focus on what you feel, see or hear right now. Right NOW. Take a minute to just…experience. Besides, I have written an article on how to be more mindful using meditation so you might as well check it out if you’re interested in this method.
Overall, I just wanted to rant about this topic. It’s really worrying to see myself struggle without a day of internet. While it certainly used to be quite alarming, say one year ago, now I feel fine with not having to overload my senses all of the time. That’s progress, and I’m proud of it.
Plus I feel like I’m pushing this meditation thing too far. Please don’t think of me as a pushy salesman, I just really like meditating and it wouldn’t hurt you to try it once. Right?
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