Tune Out Distractions

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination – Christopher Columbus

The world is full of distractions. Distractions can be in the form of noises from the busy street, overhearing a conversation at work or at home, loud music, a phone ringing, loud people talking, etc. But the most distracting thing for us today is the internet and the smartphone. The Internet is both a blessing and a curse if we don’t know how to prioritize our activities.  With the global reach of the internet, almost everyone is connected. Social media have us glued to our smartphone most of our waking hours. We are continuously bombarded with information.

You see, just like most of us, not long ago when I first got my experience with a smartphone, I found myself glued to my phone almost 3 to 4 hours a day scrolling mindless social media feeds. And, with an unlimited broadband plan, “the world was in my hands“. Or was It?

Denzel Washington rightly said, “if you don’t’ read the news, you are uninformed, if you read the news, you are misinformed”.

From the news on TV to social media to the gossip in the workplace or community, our mind is being fed with information overload. It’s hard to discern useful information from noise.  More than ever, the need to focus on ourselves and our task at hand are greater now. We should take only what is relevant to our lives, which is in alignment with or contributing to our life goals.

In the past, people are distracted by the sounds of motor vehicles, loud music, and children playing nearby. Even then, people seemed to like distractions. When bored, people would organize theme parties, concerts, circus, carnivals, etc. Even with that, we can see there is a positive side to it though. Since we are social beings and those things helped us in bonding and people came to know each other. But when we look on the flip side, it is easy to see that we just can’t live without distractions. We invented them and had to organize them at the local level then. Now, advancement in technology has brought those inventions, quadrupled in variety and intensity, into our homes and in the palms of our hands.

It is understandable that we humans are easily distracted. However, there is a negative effect caused by unsolicited/unwanted distractions. There has been a study report in 2015 on ‘The Effect of Distractions on Task Performance and Enjoyment as Moderated by Regulatory Fit’ by Kimberly Leung of San Jose State University. The study says distractions can negatively influence job performance like loss in productivity), behaviour like acting out towards others from frustration), and health, for example, unexpected hospital visit due to stress buildup). 

BASEX, a New York research firm, estimated that distractions cost the U.S. economy $588 billion per year (Spira & Feintuch, 2005).  BASEX also reported that workers lost an average of 2.1 hours per day due to constant interruptions and recovery time, therefore losing 28% of their productivity and that a 30-second interruption could result in a worker taking 20 minutes to get back into the flow of work (“Too Much Technology is Cutting Productivity,” 2008).

Since the internet has a global reach, therefore, it’s a blessing for positive purposes and a curse for negative uses. Remember, most websites and video game makers specifically designed those games to make the user addicted to them. In turn, the company that made those games benefit from the advertisements that are inside those games or applications. You are most likely to buy those products or services while you play games.

Again, it is not your fault because you didn’t know better. Every time that we get a like or a share of our posts on social media, our brain releases a chemical called dopamine, which brings a feeling similar to when being hugged, congratulated or just completed our physical exercise.

I think technology should be enjoyed, only up to the point that it serves as a recreation. As long as recreation lasts shorter than other important parts of the day then it’s fine. When you use it in moderation, you will at most remain average, i.e, neither doomed nor promising.

What sets disciplined people apart?
The capacity to get past distractions.
Focus on the task at hand — Bill Parcells

But if by using those apps and games all you get at the end of the day is a frustrated mind and a guilt feeling due to loss of time, then you are losing and the game makers are winning.

Think about it and comment.