Handling the Flood

I’m sitting in front of my computer with over 15 tabs. The tabs that are usually open are Gmail (it’s the first), Facebook, Discord, YouTube, and LinkedIn. All these tabs also show notifications whenever messages and new information are received so when I’m interested in what those messages are so I go from tab to tab checking them. This has become like clock work for me - looking for that message or notification that’ll mean something really good. Who wants to interact with me and who is interested in the messages I am sending out into the world? Then when that’s not happening I go on YouTube and see a video that interests me and after one minute I see the related videos and oh that looks interesting, oh that looks cool, oh I want to know that and I’ve opened 5 more tabs of videos I want to watch while going from one video to the other pausing and resuming them because I am so curious about all this information.

Drowning in Information

As you can see the online world has a way of sucking us up into this gratuitous rabbit hole. Why is it so tempting to check up on all these notifications all the time? It might have to do with feeling like we have some kind of fan base and these people sent a message suggesting they were interested in us or want to do something with us so we fear missing out on what that interest might be. Imagine going out into public and some random person said your name. Naturally, you’d be interested in who this person is and why they said your name. You’d turn your head and you’d be really curious to know. How does this person know me? What did they want me for and/or want to talk to me about? Later though, you realize it’s just a joke when it’s just people who want to use your time to waste it on small talk. Nevertheless, it’s really tempting to want to know what that surprise is that’s waiting for you. The good news is I’ve disabled these notifications on my cell phone and I am more in the moment when I am outside of my house.

Cutting through the BS

The irony is I was very excited about social media when it came out because I hated the actual media. I felt this way because I was constantly frustrated with the news and the nonsense I thought that was on it. (Celebrity news was the news that really ground my gears.) Additionally, when I was middle school, I was always pissed off because I felt like I was trapped in a school that seemed like a Soviet gulag where I had no freedom and I was unhappy while these people getting all the attention and money were doing such stupid things with their freedom. So when Facebook came out it, I was excited because it was a place where I could air my grievances about the things I thought were terrible about our society.

The Dark Side of Social Media

Facebook at first seemed to not be too bad. I made people who I thought were my friends and with whom I felt I could freely talk about the things that I thought were important. However, I later found out that cordial, intelligent, and nuanced discourse somehow can’t exist on social media. I was amazed that people way older than me were people who were less mature than me. (In fact my previous blog post I find out why and share it with the world). As for my “friends” they were basically children in adult bodies. We shared many of the same opinions but in reality we’d just be bitching about things that were beyond our control. We wanted things to change and I was hoping that it would morph into something more like a revolution or a movement somehow. I was dead wrong. I have since matured to new levels and understand more things that these former “friends” can’t even imagine.

A Vicious Cycle

This all boils down to a need for instant gratification and a lack of nuance that is plaguing our modern digital world. (I also discuss that in this post ). I cringe when I think about how far we’ve strayed from being able to have deep discussions of important topics in a manner and think critically about how to fix the problems of the modern world. It’s like we’ve forgotten how to have a debate and we just jump on each other and name call. What’s even worse is when people who agree with each other never come up with any kind of plan and just go in circles where nothing gets accomplished. This is the effect the flood has had on our psyches and I really don’t think it’s an accident. The creators of the flood are big media and tech companies that just looking out for their own best interests and not ours. The less we concentrate on what they’re trying to do and waste each other’s time while they operate in the shadows the better things are for them. This isn’t a big secret anymore. Some of the people who work in the big tech companies have admitted that these things are created to make people addicted so they can cash in on all of the attention.

Entering the Echo Chamber

Now the question becomes why we decide to open the flood gates on ourselves when this is a flood that we do have control over. I remember when I didn’t have Internet at a very young age and all my other friends did. I was feeling left behind and frustrated. I felt that way because I wasn’t really that happy with my family life and school life at the moment so I was looking for an escape. That's why without the Internet my only form of escape was video games. When I finally got the internet I was ecstatic at the prospect of exploring so many new and exciting things. Yet before all that, the minute I connected I remember all these stupid pop ups appearing and slowing my computer down to a crawl and it bothered me so much. After I installed the blockers I went “games.com”, “money.com” and “howtoruletheworld.com”. I was young and wanted power and to have fun lol. Anyway when I got a little more situated with the internet and found out that 80% of what’s on there is bullshit and it’s not as an amazing place as I thought it would be the honeymoon period I had with it was officially over. At the same time, I knew that there was one thing I could do on the web that had big consequences in real life and that was freely giving my unfiltered opinion. In school you’re controlled and in my family I felt bored with hardly anything I could relate to. On the Internet I could just let loose and say what I wanted. That was the appeal of social media. Then I found out that it got really old really fast because it wasn’t going anywhere. Everything was going around in circles and nothing really meant anything.

Captive State

Why is this happening? I think it’s really because the people behind these systems have a lot to gain from our lack of awareness. We are drowning in our own ignorance and we are getting addicted to drowning in it and the ones who are responsible have to gain from us drowning in it. I was following the work of Jaron Lanier and really resonated with what he says about all these advertising companies getting in bed with these social media companies to keep our attention for as long as possible to our own detriment. So while you’re out there acting like a keyboard warrior, the companies are harvesting all your attention to your detriment and their benefit. I’m not falling for that trap anymore and neither should anyone in my circle of friends, family, and subscribers. At any given moment we are inundated with suggestions. This phenomenon is called information overload and it’s very bothersome to me. You’d think that with all the science, technology, and innovations we have in the world we’d know more about how to handle this flood of information but, not only is that not the case but all of it just seems to make the flood worse.

The Hollow Society

The flood has psychological, financial, and emotional consequences. People live one life behind the screen and another life when they get off the screen. Sometimes the behind-the-screen life can be productive because a lot of people have found out how to use the Internet as something that brings joy and happiness to their lives (and possible to others) but those people are few and far between. The sad reality is that most people have all but lost the art of the conversation when it’s come to the Internet. I’m really starting to dislike the “like” button on Facebook and all those other social media sites because it’s extremely superficial. The same thing goes for comments such as “awesome”, “cool”, and “nice”. What value do these things add other than a tiny shot of dopamine to those who received them? I’m always amazed at people who have the time to create something amazing and really think deeply about the issues plaguing society but never do. Instead, they have a superficial personality where they don’t keep commitments and never take things seriously. It’s an even sadder state of affairs when these exact same people are in positions of power.

Stemming the Tide

With all this said, what can be done to handle this flood? The bad news is that some people exacerbate the flood for themselves and others. The good news is people like me are the ones who want to mitigate it and can teach others how to mitigate it. First we have to describe what “exacerbating the flood” means. Whenever you engage in petty, superficial, and angry conversation that’s headed nowhere - that is exacerbating the flood. It’s simply creating more of the same nonsense that is not helpful and gets you nowhere in life other than either raising your blood pressure, giving you a headache, and/or wasting your time. Mitigation, on the other hand, is the opposite of exacerbation. It’s where you don’t get involved in time consuming nonsense and instead get involved in things that you can at least get peace of mind from and can help you get tangible results in your life. For example, you could be doing something that’ll make a good reputation for you online (like what I’m doing in these blogs) and/or something that can translate into making money in a legitimate way like the Udemy course I created. The secret is to not waste your time talking and getting frustrated about things you can’t control. Instead concentrate and focus on matters that are in your power that you can actually do something about. Case in point in my own life is that I had these friends in New Zealand and Japan that I’ve been skyping with for over a year and I actually met them when I went to those country. That’s because I did it in a way where we didn’t engage in superficial, surface-level conversations. We went deep and really got to know who we were and how we looked at ourselves and the world.

Online and Offline Harmony

The secret is to not get overwhelmed by the digital world and instead streamline it to your advantage. Like I said in my “Slay Your Dragons” blog post, I took that leap of faith and joined HTC (the High Ticket Closer program) even though it’s a digital product. Through this digital product I was put in a group and some of these people in this group were near my vicinity. Over the two months I got to know these people more and we spoke and supported each other through our journey. After that, the leader of our group came up with an idea that we all meet. The online world has spoiled us so much that when it comes to meeting each other sometimes these logistical hiccups can happen. I came a little late because of the parking and I had to rearrange it later. When I finally got there it was very refreshing to have that human interaction and just to get to know them in a face-to-face setting. It felt a lot better and a lot more real than my online experience. At the same time, I also feel that it strongly complemented the online interaction. I would also like to give a shout out to Nick who is part of this group, reads my blogs, and was even kind enough to pick up my tab when I was dealing with my logistical hiccup. Even though it was amazing to meet the group in person, that wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t met online in the first place and gotten to know each other first.

Finding a Life Raft

The main message you should be getting from all this is not to throw away the Internet or even go on one of those online detoxes. It’s that, believe it or not, you are in control of this flood and you control the flood gates. You can strategize and refine your approach to the online world so it can bring you success, wealth, and health so you can live a happier more fulfilling life. Instead of a flood, you can control it like a titration where you collect the water bit by bit and you purify it. So instead of having tons and tons of Facebook friends that you don’t even know who the hell they are, you just have 20. Maybe out of those 20, 10 of them are near where you live and 3 of them aren’t. With those 10 people you really get to know 5 of them and with those 5 you know them to the point where you visit them and out of those 3 that don’t live so close to you let’s say you make an amazing bond with one of them and when you vacation somewhere near where they are you can visit them for fun. On the other hand with LinkedIn connections, you can do business some of them and it’ll enrich your own lives and theirs. The trouble comes when you have no mental and emotional discipline. In this case you’re most likely going to get stuck in the flood because you’ll be jumping all over the place trying every possible thing. Just like Noah made an ark during the Biblical flood, you can look for an ark (you can get on mine) and that ark is a solid online community where they have a common goal and discipline. On the other hand you can make your own ark when you find discipline within yourself. This is how you make a crazy, unhealthy and negative relationship with the online world into a good one. Now you can all use this as a guide when the flood is upon you.