WMD

Weapons of Mass Distraction.

Ever looked up from your phone and realized you’ve just blown through two hours… convinced it wasn’t more than 20-minutes?

Have you beat the latest game release in a nearly single session? Maybe it was an all-day Friday to Saturday gaming session.

Have you scrolled through all the titles on Prime and Netflix only to realize that, after an hour or two, there’s nothing worth watching? Then you decided to do the same for another 45-minutes on Disney+…?

Ever found yourself doom-scrolling on any social media platform?

Does a 10-minute video on YouTube feel like an eternity after you’ve struggled to watch the first few minutes?

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m willing to bet money that I’m not the only one who’s carelessly thrown away hours of a day that could’ve should’ve definitely been invested much more wisely.

While other places around the world struggle with unstable governments, malnourishment, poor medical care, war, and a myriad of other very real soul-crushing issues… we find ourselves struggling to keep part-time jobs, pay attention for 20-minutes in class, and wanting to obtain all the nice things with minimal effort (instant gratification without the effort). We’re even losing the ability to carry a simple conversation.

We are constantly plugged-in to some device, console, anything with a screen. We’re fixated on someone else’s digital representation of their life, while trying to keep up with and impress people we don’t even know. Or, we’re buried so deep in the news cycle that everything seems immediately important… all at once… right now… and, yet, it won’t matter to the general populous by the end of the day or by the time we click to the next story.

(resumes typing after multi-week hiatus)

So, as I was saying… (reads back through what was typed already)… We are entirely too distracted. And more often than not, the distractions are things, or people, that will add little to no value to our lives.

Now, I’m not saying that playing Call of Duty or Rocket League is a bad thing. Nor is your fantasy football league some terrible evil. There’s nothing inherently wrong with watching a handful of videos on YouTube or posting/liking/commenting on Instagram… oh, Instagram (note to self, share some thoughts about Instagram in a different post.) But when the interwebs begin to dominate your time it might be time to step away or dial back the consumption.

Oh, and don’t think the analogue folks are immune to distractions, either. I’ve known people who have lost productivity because of the volume of time spent on D&D or they’ve forgotten to eat for a day because they were sucked into a book. And, yes, I’m aware that there’s an argument that reading a book would possibly be better than a 12-hour session of Halo. Anyway, the point being, when you realize that you’re getting distracted too much, or know that your source of distraction has become an escape, that’s the caution flag that should get your attention.

Truth be told, if you’ve actually read this far, you’re probably doing better than the average person. Most folks can’t be bothered to read a few sentences on an Instagram post, let alone read an article or a blog post. Of course, if you landed on this site and read anything you’re definitely in a very small, yet, elite group of people.

Seriously, though, having so many options in front of us and an ever-increasing number of things vying for every ounce of our attention it should come as no surprise that a common goldfish almost has a better memory and attention span. We’re not even going to dig into the countless ways that we’ve advanced while regressing. We can’t just point at one thing, or even a few. If we dug deep, it would take volumes of work to unpack it all, and people much smarter than me have already written many of those volumes.

I’m aware that you’re probably asking yourself, “What on Earth is the takeaway from this?” “Where is this guy going?”

Our distractions, whether willfully sought or mindlessly fallen into, come with a price. The price is, more often than not, our own well-being and our relationships. My hope is that, from time to time, we step back and take an honest look at how we spend our time. Get uncomfortable; identify the weak areas. Rather than spending, or worse, wasting, our time, maybe we will see where we can be more intentional with the time and energy that we’ve been given and invest it wisely.