Using Dead Time as An Escape from Brainwashing Algorithms
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I began typing this piece between my pre-existing college courses, which have a continuous cycle of occurrence day in and day out. In the midst of a pandemic, they take roughly four hours in the morning, and likewise four hours in the afternoon. We spend our time looking at a screen, filled with other faces, blank and staring into an abyss. Students continue in this state until their next class begins because they have been stripped of the ability to walk between classes and converse with friends. Before writing this piece, I had the privilege of taking my dog on a walk. A time-consuming task, that I often feel I do not have the time to spare for, as it is seemingly unproductive. But, by the time we were done with our walk, my essay was just about finished too. I had no words on paper but knew exactly what I wanted to write. I often spend “free-time” in the shackles of social media, and thereby rely on social media to write my papers for me. I find it shaping my opinions, beliefs, and ideals, all of which will appear in a future paper. And, in a time in which we are more reliant on our phones to connect, we become less human and lose the ability to think on our own, causing a constant regurgitation of what we see online. While human connectivity in person is decreased due to COVID-19, we must escape these shackles by spending time doing what Jenny Odell would refer to as “nothing.”
Jenny Odell believes that doing “Nothing is neither a luxury nor a waste of time, but rather a necessary part of meaningful thought” (4). Throughout her piece, Odell utilizes nature in order to better understand herself, as well as the world around her. She often visited a Rose Garden in order to find inner peace and reflect. It was her own form of meditation. While at home, Odell found the time to partake in bird watching, an act she found relatively interesting and valuable. To the naked eye, it seems as though she is wasting time away, as the progress made is only internal, rather than an external benefit everyone can see. However, she is maximizing the use of her dead time, despite outsiders believing otherwise. Odell uses her free time to think, whereas in society there has been an overwhelming shift in using free time to stare at a screen. That is in fact the difference, between beneficial and negative dead time. Beneficial dead time is time used to recollect and consider the values true to oneself. When many believe you could be spending this free time in a more “productive manner,” but you are figuring out who you truly are. On the contrary, negative dead time is time spent allowing outside influences to impact your personal feelings, in a manner that was unexpected. It is the free time we have to be ourselves, which we allow to be overridden by external influencers. Therefore, it is essential to convert negative dead time into beneficial dead time, by discovering who we truly are.
My escape from the online world has always been playing the game of soccer. As online classes approached and COVID-19 had shut down the majority of practices, I found myself lost for an escape. I went from a two-hour practice per day, plus a four-hour drive to get there and back, to having to rely on practicing on my own. As this occurred, I realized not being able to drive to practice and back was just as equally devastating as missing the practice itself. The practice was made up on my own, however, I now had nowhere to drive with the lockdown. I was at first thankful to escape from the dead time while driving, but this proved to be what I missed the most. While driving, I had a mandatory escape from social media, and likewise everyone else around me. It was time, to simply sit alone, drive, and most importantly think. As I first thought of the drives as painfully time-consuming, I began to realize how productive they became. There were no outside influences on my thoughts. There was no social media to persuade my views. There was no one to interrupt my thought process. I found myself gaining a better understanding of myself, what I value, and the true importance of life. What I used to refer to as “dead-time” or “wasted-time,” now became my time for growth. But as this pandemic hit, the beneficial dead-time I had from driving was replaced with negative dead-time as I was stuck at home. The only way to pass the majority of this time seemed to be through online sites that are controlled by algorithms. These algorithms, that are created by businessmen with a monetary motive, often focus on addictive features that rewire oneself. As COVID-19 grew, so did the power and influence of these algorithms. Many people, like myself, have transitioned to a more technological based life, resulting in us blindly reconfiguring our mindset. It seems as though “We the People” has become “We the Algorithm.” Our “dead-time” transitioned from true productiveness, into time filled with brain-washing technology.
COVID-19 has caused a lack of an escape from social media outlets, resulting in an abundance of negative dead time as it ultimately increased the influence of social media on our society. There was nowhere to drive, no public places to visit, and a limit on the people we were allowed to see. It was not dead time in which we are forced to “do nothing” and can discover our inner self. It was dead time that became filled with social media controlling our every move. Jenny Odell claims that “when you spend enough time with someone who pays close attention to something…you inevitably start to pay attention to some of the same things” (xxiii). The same applies to algorithms as they continuously provide you with what they want you to see. Instead of allowing ourselves to make decisions, we rely on thoughts forced into our heads by these previously created algorithms. As our negative dead-time increased, we became filled with an understanding of how social media wants us to think, rather than an understanding of our own beliefs. As the pandemic took us over, it robbed us of our beneficial dead time, and returned it to us in a negative manner. My time spent driving was stripped away from me and given back to me with social media attached to it, and no further escape. As time alone with social media increased, our thoughts morphed into those of the algorithms. Our negative dead time filled with social media, and caused us to become “We the Algorithm.” Dead time became spent as if we were the prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Plato conveys a picture in which prisoners are shackled together, unable to turn around, and can only see what is projected in front of them. Due to this, the prisoners only ever see the distorted shadows that are being controlled by the people wandering behind them. These shadows are all they see, all they know, and all they have to ponder on. Their beliefs and what they “know” are completely shaped by those who are controlling the shadows. Likewise, our society is being shaped by algorithms that focus on portraying what they want us to see. As they do this, we become shackled to their beliefs, and are thereby under their control. Later in Allegory of the Cave, these prisoners are released and discover the faults that they believed for so long. That is what is needed for people today. They need to be released to think for themselves and spend time learning, not from what algorithms attempt to teach us, but rather from the truth the world provides.
Having a release is having dead-time that is not spent on social media where we are given false narratives by algorithms attempting to reshape our thoughts. Dead time, that forces one to not be influenced by factors other than themselves. Being released from the shackles is being thrown into wasted time, in which we “do nothing” rather than spend it searching for false truths that are thrown at us by social media. We have become “We the Algorithm” because society has allowed social media to control what we see. What we see controls our thoughts, just as in Allegory of the Cave. Only through finding beneficial “dead time” can one reconfiguring themselves after viewing social media outlets. If this is neglected, people become influenced by algorithms to such an extent that what they believe is in direct correlation to what appears on their social media, taking the say away from them, and giving it to those who portray these false narratives. The need to have an escape is undervalued in today’s society. To be able to escape the biased algorithms and everlasting screen-time is more beneficial then being “productive,” when productivity is forced upon us by external influences. COVID-19 has stripped us of our beneficial dead time and caused an increase in time spent on social media. By having an escape and increase in beneficial dead time, we can continue to think on our own, and avoid the attraction of the attention economy.
Overall, what we used to consider dead time was some of the most productive and influential time in our day. Whether it was spent walking your dog, driving to and from different places, or simply lying in bed with your phone out of site, it all allowed us to avoid the technology and algorithms hoping to rewire our brains. It seemed boring at first, but allowed us to think without any external forces attempting to push our beliefs one way or another. Amidst a pandemic and through the decrease in this productive “wasted time,” people are giving themselves less of an opinion. However, by increasing the beneficial dead time and time spent thinking in our daily lives, we can regain our say, escape the cave, and realize the negative impacts social media is placing on us daily. Jenny Odell suggest that
“We take a protective stance toward ourselves, each other, and whatever is left of what makes us human…we protect our spaces and our time for non-instrumental, noncommercial activity and thought for maintenance, for care, for conviviality” (28).
It is ever so important to live in the moment and take care of oneself. Finding the time and ability to escape algorithms is difficult, yet essential to preserving human thought. By creating and partaking in beneficial dead time, one can understand who they truly are.
