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Why social media is not the problem, and what is…
We’re drowning in distractions.
If only that damn phone would stop beeping at me, then I’d get some work done.
Can’t YouTube…you know…just not exist, so I can finally find my passion in peace?
It would be so much easier to be productive if Instagram stopped spewing out so many glorious pictures.
Techy stuff is everywhere, it’s here to stay, and it will continue to expand in its impact exponentially.
Information is pouring in through cracks in the roof and bubbling up through the floor.
Everyone risks falling into the trance of Internet-driven distraction.
Why? Because a lot of it is shiny, dopamine-pumping brain sugar.
It provides us with social validation on a drip-feed, which is in rather robust demand, as many of us are more isolated, depressed and fed up than ever before.
So it’s fair play to the creators of these things.
But it’s not Mark’s fault that we’re doing less; creating superficially; fidgety and lacking in focus.
It’s very much our fault.
You are not eight years old (but hats off to you if you are).
You do not need to flick through a stream of ten-second clips for two hours every day.
Yes, many of these distracting tools have benefits. I use them all the time.
I’m not about to bore you with a monologue about how great the Internet has been for us, because many have beaten me to it.
I will bore you with something else, instead:
It’s not these distractions that are the problem.
It’s your strategy.
If you’re spending more time procrastinating than working on something that fascinates you, you do not have a strategy.
Rather than trying to not be distracted, and getting annoyed with yourself for continually succumbing, you need to make your work more interesting.
You need to figure out what it is — that single thing — you will commit to over the next few months or years, that will blow people’s minds.
