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Distractions! Attention! Moving!
Jan. 2nd, 2025 09:30 am
Where was I yesterday? Oh yes, distraction.
Attention has become an area of interest for me as a rabbit with ADHD. Knowing that my brain has a hard time holding attention for any length of time has made me sensitive to the things that interrupt it, and my friends, interruptions are EVERYWHERE. A lot of mine are self-made, it's true, but we also live in an environment where it's so easy to shift your attention from something less engaging but ultimately more productive to something that lights up all of our dopamine receptors while essentially being a waste of time.
Even when I'm doing something nominally productive, like staying informed, I can't actually focus on the topic at-hand without being prompted to give money to the site hosting the information, interrupted with an auto-playing video, or have to wait for the page to reload several times as I read so it can serve more ads. It's annoying enough to deal with that on one website, but when that's almost the entirety of your experience online it becomes this relentless drain on an already-limited resource.
Corporate interests are weaponizing these breaks in our attention, it feels. We can't think deeply about complex topics because we're never allowed to sit with one thing for long enough. Long-form essays are broken up artificially into multiple pages, broken up by screen-spanning ads and calls to donate/spread/join NOW, lest we forget. We don't have spaces where we can sit and engage in deep contemplation. Everything has to be under a minute so it can be consumed as quickly as possible. But we're not really absorbing anything we consume, are we?
I don't know how we get out of this on a social level; I don't have the knowledge or power for any of that. But personally, being mindful of how easily my attention can be stolen from me is an essential skill to develop. Taking interruptions and being able to quickly decide what to do with them (and, well, actually following up) feels like something I'll need to be successful. Recommitting to focusing on the present action is another thing; it'll be kind of painful and artificial at first, but I'm sure I'll be breathing myself back into my body like a pro in no time.
Otherwise, speaking up about the dangers of stolen attention however I can feels like a good thing to do. It's important not to be preachy about it, but I do think mindfulness is an important skill we've been overlooking in general.
The Great Migration proceeds apace. We've lived in our current burrow for over a dozen years, and it should be no surprise that a lot of stuff's accumulated over that time. Since we'll need to shrink our belongings to fit in the new place, I'm trying to be ruthless about what I throw away and...mostly I'm successful. But still, there's SO much stuff that might be useful in the new place, or stuff that might actually see the light of day, that it'll be impossible to know what we'll actually end up keeping. I think we'll continue to shed belongings even after the move on 11 Jan, which is as it should be.
All of us have made commitments to being more diligent about cleaning our spaces, and now's a very good opportunity to focus on exactly how we plan to do that. I think Snepperboo prefers the simplest options for cleaning, which I can vibe with. If we can keep the place clean using household items like dish soap, vinegar, and baking soda, let's do that! We can have a few cleaners for deep-cleaning and stubborn stains.
We'll see how it shakes out. Right now, we just have to ride out the time of great change.
Attention has become an area of interest for me as a rabbit with ADHD. Knowing that my brain has a hard time holding attention for any length of time has made me sensitive to the things that interrupt it, and my friends, interruptions are EVERYWHERE. A lot of mine are self-made, it's true, but we also live in an environment where it's so easy to shift your attention from something less engaging but ultimately more productive to something that lights up all of our dopamine receptors while essentially being a waste of time.
Even when I'm doing something nominally productive, like staying informed, I can't actually focus on the topic at-hand without being prompted to give money to the site hosting the information, interrupted with an auto-playing video, or have to wait for the page to reload several times as I read so it can serve more ads. It's annoying enough to deal with that on one website, but when that's almost the entirety of your experience online it becomes this relentless drain on an already-limited resource.
Corporate interests are weaponizing these breaks in our attention, it feels. We can't think deeply about complex topics because we're never allowed to sit with one thing for long enough. Long-form essays are broken up artificially into multiple pages, broken up by screen-spanning ads and calls to donate/spread/join NOW, lest we forget. We don't have spaces where we can sit and engage in deep contemplation. Everything has to be under a minute so it can be consumed as quickly as possible. But we're not really absorbing anything we consume, are we?
I don't know how we get out of this on a social level; I don't have the knowledge or power for any of that. But personally, being mindful of how easily my attention can be stolen from me is an essential skill to develop. Taking interruptions and being able to quickly decide what to do with them (and, well, actually following up) feels like something I'll need to be successful. Recommitting to focusing on the present action is another thing; it'll be kind of painful and artificial at first, but I'm sure I'll be breathing myself back into my body like a pro in no time.
Otherwise, speaking up about the dangers of stolen attention however I can feels like a good thing to do. It's important not to be preachy about it, but I do think mindfulness is an important skill we've been overlooking in general.
The Great Migration proceeds apace. We've lived in our current burrow for over a dozen years, and it should be no surprise that a lot of stuff's accumulated over that time. Since we'll need to shrink our belongings to fit in the new place, I'm trying to be ruthless about what I throw away and...mostly I'm successful. But still, there's SO much stuff that might be useful in the new place, or stuff that might actually see the light of day, that it'll be impossible to know what we'll actually end up keeping. I think we'll continue to shed belongings even after the move on 11 Jan, which is as it should be.
All of us have made commitments to being more diligent about cleaning our spaces, and now's a very good opportunity to focus on exactly how we plan to do that. I think Snepperboo prefers the simplest options for cleaning, which I can vibe with. If we can keep the place clean using household items like dish soap, vinegar, and baking soda, let's do that! We can have a few cleaners for deep-cleaning and stubborn stains.
We'll see how it shakes out. Right now, we just have to ride out the time of great change.
