Did You Know That We Can Control Our Distractions?

I would suspect deep down that you would agree that social media keeps us distracted from the truly important. Doesn’t it?

We’re often told to think judgmentally when viewing information online. In today’s attention economy, we also need to be intentional about what we don’t engage with. Mass media mastery isn’t just about analyzing the information in front of us; it’s also about distinguishing what to ignore. And for the most part we are very poor at this.

You may wonder why I’d say that. It is very simple, and all that you have to do is walk out of your residence. You will see a parent walking with one or more of their children, but their nose is buried in the cellphone. You will see a group of young people sitting together on a bench and no speaking to each other but texting who knows who. You will go to a meeting with a business person and every time they hear a notification of an incoming message or email they ignore you – the person in front of them. It has become a tragedy! We think and show at times that these products of technology are more important than human beings.

The ways we can control our distractions involve strategically filtering out low-value content so that our limited attention can be focused where it truly matters.  Research has outlined three types of critical ignoring that help people manage today’s overwhelming information environment. They are;

• Redesign Your Digital Environment with the following examples:
  • Temporarily deactivate distracting platforms when you need to focus.
  • Set time limits for usage, for example screen time.
  • Unfollow accounts and pages that clutter your feeds.
• Become a professional fact-checker of articles or facts that are stated that seem a little off the beaten path, by:
  • Searching the organization, author, or claim.
  • Use a variety of reliable outlets and search engines to assess credibility of facts you doubt or are concerned about.
• Ignore the trolls, or superspreaders of disinformation who thrive on your interest by;
  • Not responding, correcting, or debating trolls, and
  • blocking, ignoring, and even reporting the worst ones.

Before I conclude I recently read an article called ‘Two Unrealistic Ideas That Social Media Keeps Selling Us’. It is about the lifestyle myths social media pushes that don’t hold up offline. I know that it would do you well if you read it, so I have included the link below;

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-instincts/202511/two-unrealistic-ideas-that-social-media-keeps-selling-us

To conclude, I want to tell you that what I’ve just shared with you is essential to become more resilient to the outside forces that are affecting and impeding our lives from doing the right thing. Don’t do this for me! Do it for those who you love and those who love you – it will make a world of difference in your life.

Won’t it?