The many algorithms that curate my news and entertainment are ever-changing. Rarely, if ever, have they counterbalanced a theme as it held my attention. Instead, content feeds are always amplifying, intensifying, and exaggerating anything that the most recent data suggests I’ll react to.
For several seconds I watch a romanticized video of a coffee connoisseur brewing their morning espresso, and for the following weeks I’m inundated by caffeine-rich media and products. Or dare I “like” a post detailing a 5-minute daily fitness routine; forever becoming the un-ticketed audience to every shirtless man yapping on social media or woman that finds the perfect camera angle for her squat routine, mirroring that of a colonoscopy.
Over my short life, this digital myopia has developed—allowing the most inane thought or action to derail oneself into a complete and sudden disconnect from the present (that reality which demands senses to experience, not only imagination). It feels particularly pernicious given the increasing amount of time spent living in digital reality for careers, friendships, news, and even romance.
Ironically, this sentiment—picked up by a platform’s algorithm—would itself deliver a tidal wave of off-the-grid, digital-detox, living-present-focused content. Resulting in the same fully isolated and deliberately idealistic stream of media that every rabbit hole today indulges; everyone, a horse wearing blinders.
There’s a discipline that one must develop to be grounded in the information age. An ability to always remember that today’s channels are purpose-built to excite you, by whatever means they’ve determined you’re most excitable; cat videos and genocide alike. Maybe, as a rule of thumb, always attempt to engage your senses. Meaning that, when contending with an intense emotion—pain, pleasure, anger, and joy—invest a moment to identify its source. If, absent a screen and speaker, you can’t smell it, taste it, touch it, hear it, or see it, recognize it’s your imagination at work, and most likely it’s gotten the best of you.