We’re constantly battered by distractions, from youtube advertisements to robocalls.
In 2007, the research firm Yankelovich estimated that an average person saw up to 5,000 ads per day, and I bet that’s more than doubled by today.
Humans eat, drink, and consume much more than is necessary to distract us from what we’re meant to do.
When you envision an advanced society, you probably see people evolved, healthier, and smarter.
Not always.
Sometimes advancements can weaken you because you’re used to things being easy.
From 1999-2018, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. increased from 30.5 percent to 42.4 percent.
We develop habits to find comfort and familiarity, not for our long-term health. People smoke cigarettes to calm down, to think, and drink alcohol to celebrate and to forget.
Many of the leading causes of death are somewhat preventable.
But we don’t take steps to exercise more, eat healthier, and trash bad habits.
We buy cars, toys, and technology to fill our time and our residences, fueling a $39 billion industry of self-storage units because we want shit we can’t even shove into our already overflowing homes.
But as entertainment has expanded, more opportunities opened doors, and the cost of communication across the world cheapened, the more people want to escape through alcohol, heroin highs, and even suicide.
Instead of using this newfound freedom to chase our dreams, we waste weekends binge-watching Netflix and scrolling social media to keep up hourly with meme trends on Twitter.
Most of our habits are shallow instead of completing hard and fulfilling work.
Because it’s easy, and we can’t fail if we never start.
You can start an entire business in one weekend using Squarespace, Stripe (online payment processor), and a delivery system for $100 and a few hours.
That took months, a 10-person costly team, and a $2 million in investors when Marc Randolph co-founded Netflix.
So why are there fewer startups and less technological revolution? In the early 2000s, we thought 2020 would bring flying cars. Instead, we can talk to some of our kitchen appliances.
Overall, people are more educated but less motivated. Most people start every day by indulging in social media instead of their own thoughts.
Instead of starting new ideas, companies sue each other over patent rights– we fight over a fixed pie instead of expanding it.
We expend less effort across life in general, reducing dating to swiping right or left, medicating unruly children with ADHD medicine, and dumbing down relationships to likes and social media comments.
If you cut out the unnecessary bullshit and focus on what you really want, you’ll be happier than competing in a never-ending race with your social media feed with relationship and job milestones.
It’s all in the cloud of external distractions.