My Journey of Reclaiming Attention

In early March, I suddenly wanted to tear down all social media, including the fact that I stopped receiving new feeds. I can't remember what the trigger was. Maybe it was the death of my beloved cat, or the sudden influx of too much information about the war that I couldn't consume my body and mind, or maybe it was after I joined Matters that I found more possibilities and started my own rectification. trip.

For more than a month, I successfully quit Facebook and IG, and even visited Matters less during the period. But I lived happily, taking care of my day-to-day life attentively and listening to others at the clinic. I have more time to read books and observe my own needs. When creating art and ikebana, I can connect with my heart more. Then I found that when I recovered my focus from things that have nothing to do with me, I have more space and my energy is sufficient, just like the working memory of a computer is enough, it works very quickly, facing internal and external You can also respond most appropriately to a situation, knowing what is most important to you and what needs to be dealt with first.

Just today, I felt it was time to write an article to share this more than one month journey of reclaiming my attention. The three words "Duansheli" appeared in my mind. I think it is a good metaphor. Today, I will share with you. "break".

"Cut": Cut off unnecessary things.

I feel like a person who doesn't browse Facebook and IG very often, and I have removed these apps from my phone for a while, but I find that whenever I pick up my phone and do nothing, I always use Browser to swipe to social media (I feel that using Browser I can prevent Apps from eavesdropping on my daily conversations). When I came to Matters, I found a lot of new information, a lot of new content and a style of writing that I couldn't see on Facebook and IG. I was suddenly excited and awakened my passion for writing, which died out in 2019 due to the anti-amendment movement, and it was gone for three years. But when I want to write again, I find that my thinking ability is poor, and I have no idea how to start, and I don't know how to write. Of course, I have never been a writer. But I knew that if I wanted to write well, I had to start with what I was looking at, and then the question came: what am I consuming/reading? Or am I the one being consumed?

In September last year my Facebook Account was actually hacked, and that was when I wanted to cut out social media in a rush, but got it back due to a need for certain pages. But in fact, I still have a shadow in my heart, and I am even more worried, and I really want to make some resistance to the big companies that consume us. Came to Matters just after watching "IT Dog" . As said in the play, is our privacy and concentration really so cheap? Don't everyone just accept this basic setting, this business model that will make us easily addicted, and say softly: "Unconsciously distracted~" Is that a joke?

It's no accident that our focus is stolen, it's by design. When I noticed this, I tried to keep myself from using my phone on any social media including Browser, I was watching what I was doing when I picked up my phone, and I found that my brain would feel that way for a few days Strangely, it seems like I don't know what to do. I found out that I was reacting to this body movement of Scrolling.

Then I searched the Internet for why these designs are so easy to make us addicted. This article citing Behavioural Psychology has the following concise and concise explanation. We are prone to three basic psychological mechanisms of people on social media:

1. He makes us feel connected to our friends, exploiting our natural desire to connect with the community.
2. With a very easy action (Scrolling), he can obtain new information and satisfy our curiosity.
3. That evil Like button cleverly uses the Variable-Ratio reinforcement mechanism. Since you can't predict whether the articles you publish will get likes every time, you will want to keep refreshing to see. (If you have a like every time you post or you don’t have a like every time you post, you won’t have this desire to constantly check if you have a like, this is Fixed-Ratio satisfaction)

All three add up to something that we can easily become addicted to. In fact, we are not addicted to the act of swiping Facebook. We are just addicted to the feeling that Facebook can make us feel connected, get new information, and wonder if we are liked. Because that Scrolling action is so easy.

In response to the above three things, I made the following adjustments:

1. Although I've de-programmed the phone, I've made myself a computer, because then you don't really want to use the phone for social media, and I know I'll be able to just 5 minutes a night to see the best The current situation of friends satisfies the feeling and nature of "wanting to connect with people". And I also told my best friends around me that I stopped using social media, so please share with me if they have anything, and I will reply directly to them. Then my relationship with family and friends improved because we had more genuine and direct sharing and responses. If I have a new idea, I will directly tell those I want to share to get a response, so I don't have to check Facebook to see if I have liked or read it.
2. If I'm not interested in Facebook content, but only have inertia for the action of swiping the phone, how should I eliminate this inertia? Seeing that many authors have shared the book "Atomic Habits", there is a small gain: increase your friction with that habit (Delete App). Or, make good use of your habit to build a better habit. What I think about is that I can actively find what I want to read. I found that curiosity is quite strong because I really want to get new information, and satisfying curiosity is a good feeling. So I keep an eye out for what I can read and assimilate. At first, I went to brush Matters, and also signed up to Medium to see the interesting articles, but in the end I found that I was not very able to capture scattered information. I prefer to delve into specific topics, and books are more suitable for me. So I started researching other tools that would help me with active reading and absorption: I took my Kindle back from the deepest part of my drawer.

Then I discovered that Notion is extensive and profound. It is really a powerful data integration tool, which allows me to rewrite my entire focus on a new gameplay, which will be continued in the next article "Shelter"...

Take this as a record, and write it to fellow travelers who have shared experiences of social media separation.