Distractions – the benefits of overstimulation

On a day-to-day basis, I find it hard to get anything done of significant value. It seems unlikely, though, since I’m always preoccupied with the mundane multitasking of multiple stimuli. Since closing down my Facebook a year ago, my attention has turned to googling random things. That sidebar google search on my browser has been used and utterly abused. There’s the constant updating of Twitter, random e-mail checks with, as usual, no important messages, and the monotony of ‘instant message received’ coming through my chat client. And then there’s this blog here that I’ve so casually neglected. NY Mag’s piece on our attention spans in the 21st Century, The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation, reminds me of how little I accomplish with so much at my disposal.

“Your mind is not getting the dopamine or the hugs that it needs to keep you focused on what you’re doing. And any time your work gets a little bit too hard or a little bit too boring, you allow it to catch on to something that’s more interesting to you.”

Isolation seems to be a natural bi-product of the Internet age despite the growing trend toward social networking. Cursory communication has numbed our sense and do not nearly replace the full experience of leaving the web. The brief bursts of stimulation seems to have conditioned me to be very spacey, and all the bummin’ around I’ve been doing lately has reached a critical mass.

“Where you allow your attention to go ultimately says more about you as a human being than anything that you put in your mission statement,” he continues. “It’s an indisputable receipt for your existence. And if you allow that to be squandered by other people who are as bored as you are, it’s gonna say a lot about who you are as a person.”

Internet, I can’t quit you.