The Perils of Being Everywhere And Nowhere
We are increasingly spreading ourselves thin trying to be everywhere. In doing so, we are losing our ability to be anywhere.
I run on autopilot when I turn on my laptop. Open up the browser, type in “facebook” (just ‘f’) and hit enter. While that loads, open up Twitter on a new tab, Quora on another and maybe Gmail too. And lo and behold, I’m everywhere!
And nowhere.
In fact, as I list out all the places I frequent often, the absurdity of it all takes hold:
I complete the above cycle in around 10 minutes before one of them hooks me in for an hour of doing nothing. And after the hour is up? That’s right. Go through the cycle again.
I hate it.
Because it takes a toll on our attention span.
Our average attention span is now estimated to be lower than that of a goldfish — a claim which is getting harder to contest.
Some have argued that a short attention span might not be so bad; maybe we are more selective now and only pay attention to the important things in life.
But I don’t concur. While we do need a more selective filter in today’s world — given the huge amount of information and stimulus we are bombarded with — we are becoming incapable of paying attention to anything: including the important parts of our life.
What are those important parts? I cannot say. It’s different for everyone. But what each of us needs to do is to pay attention to what’s important to us or at least toward figuring it out.
Because it prevents us from being in the moment.
As cliched as it sounds, we need to be in the present. In the now. The only moment we’re in. Being everywhere limits our capability to do so.
Checking Facebook to see whether someone replied to my comment, I am caught up in the past. When I am on the fantasyPL sub thinking about possible transfers to make, I’m caught up in the future. I’m at all points in time except the current one: a classic recipe for failing to live a life.
Because it makes us reactive instead of proactive.
When you try to be everywhere, it is almost impossible for you to be proactive. Instead, it’s all about reacting to things: events, notifications and so on. In moderation, that’s fine. But when we start doing it all the time and become habituated to only react, we set ourselves up for disaster.
We might end up reacting away our whole life without having lived on our own terms.
Because it diffuses our focus.
Being everywhere is not just bad for our focus, it is downright terrible. Multitasking — a common excuse for our attempts to be omnipresent — is bad for us. We seem to get a lot of things done, but in the long run we are better off focusing on one thing at a time, being at one place at a time.
Any meaningful (deep) work requires extensive focus.
Because it undermines human relationships.
When you’re meeting friends at a cafe, are you really there? Or are you a 1000 miles away on a server as bits of data? It’s worse than sitting at home and skipping the meetup altogether. Because it means being online and offline at the same time. It means not being with the ones around you.
I struggle with this a lot, even when I have tucked away all electronic devices. My mind wanders too much. And the supposed ability of ours to be omnipresent in the modern world is making it worse. I cannot concentrate. I cannot listen. I cannot connect with the person in front of me — and to some extent, I lose the one inside me too.
Even right now, I am fighting off the urge to open up a new tab for a quick look at what’s up on Twitter. In fact, writing this piece has taken me a lot of hours over several days because I couldn’t concentrate. Because I couldn’t stand being in this one place, typing away in a document.
With an average of around five social media accounts, I guess this is a common struggle among netizens. The feeling of being connected yet disconnected. Of being somewhere yet not being there.
I plan to do something about it. I’m not sure what. The platforms themselves are not the problem. It has more to do with my addicted wandering mind. Perhaps, I will start meditating. Maybe, I’ll place restrictions on my internet usage. Maybe, I’ll turn my smartphone into a dumb-phone.
Until then, I’ll be right here, and there… everywhere… and nowhere.
Zerone is an undergrad publication at I.O.E, Pulchowk focusing on People (their creative side, their thoughts, their lives) and Technology (the new, the old, everything).
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