The lost art of Daydreaming.
It’s a rare breed now.
“Attention span of humans has been reduced to a mere 8 seconds.” — read a BBC article.
Somehow I came across this while traveling between my infinite loop of WhatsApp, Gmail, and Youtube.
It struck me hard as it further read — “Over the past years the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now.
That is less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish.”
You must be thinking to be as I did, This can’t be true right?
We could not have lost so much in such a short span.
But the truth is bitter, we have lost our abilities to focus drastically.
And in an ironic manner, The answer lies in DayDreaming.
Let me ask you a question:
When was the last time you wandered off to a distance clouded with your own thoughts and “Did nothing”?
Chances are very few of you will ever say YES to that in recent times.
The reason being we are not designed to be bored and we need constant stimulus. And many there are, who are exploiting this trait carefully.
The modern products we consume daily. Be it the food we eat, the phone screen you are reading this on is built to grasp our attention.
Everything around us in modern times is weighed by one thing. “Attention”.
And to attain that we have the perfect formula to Wire us in.
Bright Colors.
Aggressive fonts.
And an Algorithm that never lets you go.
A perfect recipe for Dopamine overdrive.
The Era Before Smartphones
Recently I had met with an old teacher of mine from school. She used to teach English Literature and that was a certain nemesis for me.
She used to Scream at the top of her lungs.
“Stop Daydreaming and pay attention”, while I was put into the realization of where I was.
Suddenly I realized how less I have reduced Daydreaming.
Getting Bored and Staying in your mind has become some form of rare talent in itself.
There are so many easy escapes nowadays.
And the best one is the smartphone. With a few clicks and swipes, we can experience all there is to offer.
Without anticipation or any work.
Instant Dopamine at your disposal.
Earlier to feel engaged in any work or society. You had to put effort. Even small talk with your friends. You had to put effort.
(Emphasize on effort )
And to be honest I was much happier. Much more satisfied.
Now even with so much more, the void of the actual “Thing” still feels empty.
I don't write as much, or take photos of clouds or even talk to my friends as much as I used to.
Most of the time if I am bored I don't do the things I love I just watch them online.
Retribution:
DayDreaming is used as a metaphor in this post to convey how less we spend time with ourselves.
How less we focus on the things that matter.
How toxic our environment has got both physically and spiritually.
We can't do much in the face of external factors, but we can always thrive on what our reactions might be.
if you are someone like me, who wants to change their habit. There are a few mantras you can follow.
- Accept your flaws and that it’s okay.
- Know the root cause, for me, it was procrastination in my work. If you feel like you should be doing a task then you should be doing it. period.
- Make some progress even if it is small. Try to get some momentum every day, even if it is just mending your bed.
- And yeah take your life easy and slow. it’s not a race to the finish line.
I would like to finish it off with a small poem by Langston Hughes.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
(See you, space cowboy.)
