[HN Gopher] A New Theory of Distraction (2015)
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A New Theory of Distraction (2015)
Author : yamrzou
Score : 32 points
Date : 2024-08-16 18:40 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| yamrzou wrote:
| https://archive.is/NtHuq
| oofnik wrote:
| For fellow fans of Crawford's writing, he publishes on Substack
| at mcrawford.substack.com.
| brendanfay wrote:
| nice article, great way to pass the time
| keybored wrote:
| _The Mind Illuminated_ has a catchy spin on "ADD". The author(s)
| thinks the real problem is "awareness deficit disorder".
| Attention is overused. It is after all a faculty that we feel we
| can control to a large degree. But our mind (or the untrained
| mind, meditation-wise) only has so much power /strength. If
| attention gets over-used then awareness will fail. Because you
| need a balance of attention and awareness (the ultimate balance
| is a state of mindfulness).
|
| You can train attention. Meditation helps. But a simpler start is
| to stop attending so much. Your problem might be overused
| attention; trying to "deal with" attention head-on (which we so
| often do--just fixate on the prima facie problem until it is
| solved) might just frustrate you.
|
| Many years ago I felt like I was emotionally fried. I couldn't
| deal with my narrating mind. I guess the real solution was to get
| a life. But that felt overwhelming. So I started taking walks
| every day. Eventually they became daily meditation walks
| (described in the book). Eventually I reached a point where I had
| so much awareness (due to not attending/fixating every waking
| second?) that I was more content with the world around me as it
| happened. I didn't feel like I had to distract myself as much. It
| was a start.
| feoren wrote:
| > It's not just that we choose our own distractions; it's that
| the pleasure we get from being distracted is the pleasure of
| taking action and being free. There's a glee that comes from
| making choices, a contentment that settles after we've asserted
| our autonomy
|
| An interesting take, but I don't _feel_ like I 'm making a choice
| at all. In fact I'm often screaming at myself to stop scrolling
| and go to bed, but I don't. I never feel more powerless than when
| I am stuck in a distraction loop. I literally want to stop, but
| can't. There's no glee, no autonomy in that.
| svat wrote:
| It is typical of addictions that they are ineffective at
| solving the problems that make us seek them -- so IMO it
| wouldn't be surprising if an urge for autonomy leads to
| scrolling which doesn't actually satisfy that urge. Note that
| the article a couple of paragraphs later mentions gamblers and
| occasional "winning" that is in the long term losing.
|
| But I think a solution, or at least an experiment to test the
| hypothesis, is suggested by your reaction ("When scrolling I
| feel powerless, no autonomy") which is itself a desire for more
| autonomy: what happens if we instead cultivate the opposite
| value, less autonomy/freedom and more
| service/subordination/allegiance (to the job or sleep routine
| or whatever)?
|
| If the theory of the article is right, then a desire for
| autonomy leads to distraction which, being unsatisfying, only
| intensifies that desire. So cultivating the opposite (telling
| oneself "What I need right now is actually not autonomy, but
| fidelity to higher goals" or whatever) _may_ curb the hunger
| for autonomy more effectively than our ineffective distraction
| does?
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