Our Environment Keeps Speeding Up
Era of Information
The era we live now is dominated by information. Every second of the day, how much data transits in the air through these invisible microwaves. All these data are the fuel of the increasingly dominant GAFA. No wonder nowadays jobs like influencers or digital marketers emerged so much.
The Internet has taken so much importance in our daily life that we can’t imagine a day without our smartphone. Imagine if an Internet shutdown occurred tomorrow. It would be as catastrophic (if not more) as a shortage of water or electricity supply.
Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)
With all this information transiting above our heads, how many hours do you spend each day on Instagram? Facebook? Youtube? Bring this number to a week, and ultimately to a month. You might be surprised at the time spent on screen.
The average person spends around 2 hours and 24min on social media each day. Bring this to an entire lifetime, and you get 6 years and 8 months. In 6 years, that’s plenty of time to read books, learn a new language, or even learn to tapdance.
You get my point, there’s a form of addiction we are caught in with social media. We are constantly checking out news, flooded by notifications. The FOMO syndrome has already spread like a virus.
By carrying our attention to social media, we end up living in this virtual world and disconnect ourselves to reality.
By Being Connected We End Up Being Disconnected
Disconnected to reality
Let’s be honest, scrolling on Instagram feels good, receiving 10 new likes on a picture also feels good. This feeling has a scientific reason. It’s hormonal.
Checking on your social media releases dopamine. Everytime you receive notifications, you have a dopamine discharge and you feel good. The same way as you would when playing casino machine slots. The real consequence is that it rewires your brain, making it used to instant gratification. Not only, it causes your brain to be addicted to these random shots of dopamine but your sense of reality also becomes distorted.
The addiction is a serious matter. According to a study, 10% of people aren’t able to stop consuming social media, repeating a pattern similar to drug addicts.
Your reality becomes what you consume every day. Watching these pictures of people with the perfect house, body, partner, job can shape your perception of what is success. Putting yourself in the equation comes down to comparing yourself to these people leading this “perfect life”. While some can feel genuinely happy for people on pictures, others can develop a sense of jealousy, or depression.
Disconnected to being
This virtual world plays with our hormones. It makes us feel good, feel socially involved, socially appreciated. These virtual interactions start to become a reality that’s well anchored and more concrete than actual real-life interaction.
Seeking more “likes”, or comparing yourself to those IG models is a quest for external validation that’s never ending. What this virtual reality does is setting new standards that we end up trying to grasp.
Problem is:
- It’s addictive
- It won’t provide long-lasting happiness
- Ultimately, we lose sight of who we are.
“Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”
― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
Silence Roots Us
Meditation practices, ASMR
As we lost our ways to be ourselves, thus many headed for Silence as a cure. How many times a day, do we stand in total silence? When we think about it Silence is the complete opposite of being stimulated by externals. Silence draws our attention inside. We end up being left with ourselves and our thoughts.
The increasing popular interest towards Meditation apps is one illustration of the necessity to slow down the busy world we live in. Some prefer the practice of YOGA, while something quite new in terms of mindfulness appeared under the name of ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response). So many of us are aware of how not mindful anymore we are about small things in life. That’s where Silence comes into the game, it creates a propice environment to confront our thoughts and make the voluntary wish to let go of our constant need of being glued to our screen.
“Offline” is the new luxury
I went on a silent buddhist retreat in India. All that I learnt during those 20 days of retreat were invaluable. Making vow of silence made me disconnect to self-connect. Confronting my thoughts made me ask questions about what I really like on a deep level, and what I wanted to achieve in my lifetime.
I cultivated thoughts of gratitude and trained to focus on the Present moment. Believe me, although I didn’t touch a smartphone for those 20 days, I felt happier and more human than ever.
What also struck my mind is how popular this kind of retreat is. We were 120 students coming from all around the world. People were ready to travel thousands of km and spend money to be “locked” in a silent environment. This is completely the opposite of the mainstream idea of holidays, right?
Silence has many undoubted benefits and today more than ever, it seems like being disconnected is a luxury worth paying.
About the author: Ludovic Chung-Sao
Ludovic is founder of Zen Soundproof. He compiles comprehensive Soundproofing DIY guides, with all the benefits emerging from it. You’ll often find him breaking down complex topics to make it clearer for others. He uses a pen (or rather a keyboard) to help people find more zen in their life. Learn more at zensoundproof.com