Brain Rot Is Real
I am part of a 10Xer Club WhatsApp group. Its founder, Harinder Singh Pelia, shared this video by Achina Mayya on that group. I watched it, albeit a few days later, and felt like sharing it with a larger audience.
We are all smart people. We know that digital consumption has led to cognitive decline. We read books like Deep Work / Digital Minimalism (Cal Newport), Hyperfocus (Chris Bailey), Stolen Focus (Johann Hari), and Focus (Daniel Goleman), yet we fall prey to the screens.
During the last 3-4 months, I had to focus on building our product, and screens were a huge distraction. I installed the productivity app Rize (https://rize.io) on my laptop and saw a significant change in my work pattern.
But I too fall prey to the doom-scrolling once in a while, and when I am done, an hour or two has passed without me knowing how the time flew. Despite being reasonably disciplined, if this is what screens can do to me, I wonder what the case must be with most people when not disciplined enough.
One can not solve this problem with willpower alone because willpower is not a dam that holds the water. It's like a muscle that wears down eventually.
To manage screen time, one must consciously create a lifestyle without screens. Long walks, Reading Books, and some form of meditation are the best solutions. But these need to be integrated into our daily routine.
I am worried about the younger generation, which is acutely affected by this issue. For them, the screen is the world they live in. Calling people is not what young people do. Text or voice messages are their default communication protocol.
I am worried about many things that need intense concentration (Air Traffic Control, Surgical Staff, Pilots, Emergency Response Staffers). What if we have people with a screen addiction and cognitive decline in such critical roles? The catastrophe can be devastating.
We need focused people on the frontline to ensure quality adherence when building infrastructure such as bridges, skyscrapers, nuclear plants, railways, and aeroplanes. Imagine someone with a screen addiction being at the helm of affairs while such critical systems are being built. Such system failures can have disastrous effects.
I don't know the perfect solution. But being aware of one's addictions (& it's ill effects) and finding out ways to change habits is a great first step.
𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲. 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐨, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.