On attention…
Did you know that attention is one of our most valuable assets, especially in today's world where countless things compete for it — particularly on social media? Where we choose to direct our attention shapes our experiences, influences our decisions, and ultimately determines how we spend our time—even impacting our life satisfaction.
By controlling where our attention goes, we gain the power to focus on what truly matters, whether it's personal growth, relationships, or achieving our goals.
So, where does your attention usually go? And is that focus benefiting you? What are the things that matter most to you, who do you aspire to be, and are you directing your attention toward those goals, or are you getting too distracted? It's okay— we've all been there!
Cultivating this kind of attention to our habits can be uncomfortable, especially since it touches on nearly every aspect of our lives. But it's a skill we can develop, and in my experience, practicing it can lead to significant shifts in our life's direction.
With social media, it's becoming harder to regulate our impulses, stay focused on what truly matters and maintain mental clarity. But the moment we recognise when social media has become an autopilot behaviour, it opens up the possibility to approach it differently.
I've been reading S.O.A.R. by Tom Bunn to overcome my fear of flying, and there's an insightful explanation of autopilot that I found relevant to this topic. When we first take on new tasks like becoming more mindful of our social media use, we need to be consciously aware of what we're doing there, which takes mental effort. Autopilot doesn't like that because it goes against its very nature. But as we continue to reflect on why we're using it, how much time we spend on it, its impact on us and what we gain from it, we get better at noticing our habits. Over time, this helps us make more deliberate choices, and with practice, managing it becomes more natural.
Last year, I took a break from Instagram as part of an experiment for my dissertation, and to have more control over my usage because I didn't have much at the time. Now I find it easier to recognise when my mind feels off or when I'm overusing it to the point where it clouds my thinking. When that happens, I step back, until I can manage it better.
It's an ongoing process, and I still slip up sometimes, but I'm getting better at recognising it— something I couldn't do before. I'd like to figure out how to use social media in ways that can benefit both myself and others, instead of letting it drag me into a mess of conflicting viewpoints and distractions.
I do love social media, though it's definitely a love-hate thing. I can see how powerful it is and how it can shape society for the better particularly when used with intention and understanding of its potential drawbacks. With so much information constantly swirling around, pulling us in countless different directions, where we focus our attention becomes our greatest asset, depending on the directions we choose.
So, I want to ask you: are you in control of where your attention goes, or are you always letting external influences decide that for you?
