Looking at how fast paced the world seems to be these days, I can’t help but ask myself who the world is racing with. Or where it is racing to. Looking at how fast the speed of everything seems to be in recent times. So fast you’re not even allowed to slow down to catch your breath before moving on to the next big thing.
Whew… This makes staying focused and present a little bit more difficult. In a way that makes you feel incapable of taking your eyes off your mobile devices because of fear of missing out. You just keep getting more and more sucked in till you notice one day how really short your attention span has become.
Sigh…
A lot of us can’t even stay scrolling through our emails for more than 5 minutes without feeling the urge to move on to another app to catch what we think is already going on there. Social media having a kind of firm hold on us. Which makes it even harder for lots of creatives to flourish. Because if you don’t find ways to capture your audience’s attention within the first 2 to 3 seconds, you may end up losing them forever.
Information Overload
Honestly speaking, I don’t think we were built to consume as much content as we do in the short amount of time that we do them. I really think it makes us overly stimulated and leads to information overload which can hamper on our creativity. The kind of content we consume every second of every day does things to our minds and we sometimes don’t even notice it. Which is what we call “influencing” these days.
And this influencing does it’s work in different ways. Some of them good for us and harmless, while some of them can be really bad. Which is why you need to be very strong willed and disciplined to be on social media these days. So you don’t get swayed away from your values.
I sometimes even feel bad for the younger generation who are still growing and trying to develop their sense of self. Because the media is constantly feeding us all with things they want us to aspire to. Like the body shape they feel is the ideal one, the kind of lifestyle they think you should aspire to. And even how to celebrate your big moments.
Whew… If you think I’m exaggerating this, just think of how bad a lot of people feel when they have a special day coming up. And they are unable to meet society’s expectations of what that day should look like. Like the photoshoots that comes with birthdays and the large parties / luxury that comes with weddings. Especially Nigerian weddings.
Technology is supposed to help us be more productive and generally help us do more work in less time. While social media is supposed to help provide new ways of reaching / forming connections with a wider set of people. But the downside is that while all of these is going on, we are also getting hooked and addicted.
With no time to stop and reflect. Getting obsessed and addicted to instant gratification. Nobody wants to wait anymore and be patient with their goals. So whatever it is we want, we want it now and we want it fast.
And if perhaps you can’t have it now, you end up succumbing to pretense and make believe to appear made and successful when your present reality shows the opposite.
What do you think of this piece ? Please share your thoughts in the comments section. I would love to hear from you.
