The Despair of Distraction

The road to our essence, according to Kierkegaard

 
Over the past few weeks I’ve been spending more time on YouTube than I feel comfortable sharing. When I tell you I’ve watched just about every blackhole video out there, I’d only be exaggerating slightly. In a way, it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: the algorithm has literally sucked me in past its ergosphere, past its event horizon, where neither time nor space hold meaning.

What lies within the mysteries of life that captivate me so wholly? Why is it that whenever my incessant fears of death come crawling out at night, or when I feel even the slightest inkling of anxiety prop up in my throat, my thoughts are promptly diverted by Brian Greene’s beautiful voice?

Our incessant need to find distraction from our unease is not a rarity; I’d even argue it is an innate part of our evolution. However, the ability to control our attention is also one of the most crucial attributes of our mental faculties. Though spending hours on YouTube, or incessantly scrolling through Instagram, or whatever, can give us some temporary ease, “unexpressed emotions never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in an uglier ways.” (Sigmund Freud).

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Πηγή: shifra.substack.com