A Journey Worth Taking

Syed Rahman
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

In the last few months, life has been rewarding, challenging, exasperating and exciting. New family members have arrived and taken over my world. Old worries have melted, but new ones have invariably reared their heads. It is the way we live and will be all too familiar to many.

Driving me forward is a need to grow and look after my own family. Despite this, it does seem to get more and more difficult to stay in control. The last few weeks have given me time to try and understand why. I live in perpetual servitude to others, with a small window allowing me to see the places I could be. Surrounded by distractions and meaningless engagements, I find that I dither and waste my time away.

I see others doing newsworthy things, be it great or terrible, but didn’t truly understand the impact on me. Content is less valuable than ever and is available in small bite-sized chunks. I have found my own vocabulary has significantly shrunk since my teens. I dread to think what it will become in ten years time.

I find myself looking out of windows, longing for an opportunity to see a simpler world. I find myself longing to read a book like I did as a child. However, I can’t bring myself to go travelling. “Too many responsibilities”, I tell myself. I can’t read a book. “Not enough time”. And yet, I despise that excuse.

Realising my hypocrisy, I began exploring the reasons for my unconscious aversion to difficulty and inclination towards the consumption of easy solutions and overall procrastination.

What I found has changed me. It has changed my attitude, my environment, and perhaps most importantly, my mental state. I feel much more comfortable than when I began my journey.

I live surrounded by technology designed to keep my attention. I find myself followed by corporations, governments and agencies chasing nothing more than my entire life. The very attraction of bleeding edge technology — which isn’t really bleeding edge — made it all too easy for me to swallow the pill of sacrificing my privacy.

And when I thought about it, what do I really get in return? Not much.

Facebook is a cesspool of bitter arguments, overzealous agenda pushers and truly awful content peddled by wannabe journalistic organisations with no sense of responsibility for the accuracy or impact of what they publish.

Twitter isn’t much better. A community which is all too willing to react viciously without considering other viewpoints, and engage in unconsciously condoning terrible things through the use of tasteless abuse, bullying and torment inflicted on one another.

Google, like Facebook, is as untrustworthy as they come. Signing hidden deals to gather more data on people, regardless of whether they are users or not. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Despite my career being in the world of Digital Marketing, where I use Google and Facebook on a daily basis, I probably trust these companies less now than ever before.

And that is only some of the services I found myself using. “Using” is a loose term, as the vast majority of these services were barely used.

As a result, I am leaving these services. Cutting out usage of these where possible, unless I absolutely have to. Already, my phone is clearer, with fewer notifications. I find myself sitting on my phone less, and spending more time being productive. I am more willing to go out, compared to before.

I haven’t picked up a book yet, but I’m working on it. My bedroom, office and living room have been cleared of all distracting materials. I have only kept what I use or need.

I’m still finding ways to get better, but I am confident I can keep moving forward.

It’s difficult, with my FOMO in overdrive.

But, I assure you, it’s a journey worth taking.


Originally published at www.stonekomodo.co.uk on September 4, 2018.

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