Hyper-Stimulation Robs

Society as a whole is getting robbed every day. We are having our attention robbed. We get pulled in one direction, only to get pulled into another a couple of minutes or even seconds later. Social media applications ping and buzz our smartphones at all hours of the day. Text messages and other notifications constantly strain and fight for our attention. We stop what we are doing to check the notification only to resume our activity and then pause it moments later after another disturbance. When watching tv we never need to fully focus because we can simply rewind if we miss something. Our minds and bodies are perpetually being trained to have shorter attention spans. Focusing on one activity without an outlet for that brief dopamine hit a notification brings has become difficult. Deep work is hard to find when we are constantly interrupted. Whole generations are being robbed of their full potential as a result of this hyper-stimulation.

Hyper-stimulation leads us to not question what comes next. What comes next is a few clicks and a couple of scrolls away. Gone are the days where long-form media grab our attention the most. Society has moved to “short” videos such as Tik Tok and Instagram Reels where people can simply scroll to the next offering if they are uninterested. Time can slip away as we scroll aimlessly. Hyper-stimulation conditions us not to focus—we are never bored when we can always switch the app or source of content. Content rules our society and there is an endless supply.

Before the age of hyper-stimulation, people were alone with their boredom. Alone with their boredom, they were alone with their thoughts. As they were bored, thoughts would flow and ideas would sprout. From these ideas, problems were solved, innovations were invented, and new avenues of thought were pursued. We should embrace boredom because it forces our minds to churn. It forces our minds to solve the problem of boredom by placing our focus on something new. Boredom enables humans to pursue greatness.

We should want to push back against hyper-stimulation and intentionally place ourselves into situations and environments where we have more control over what disturbs us. Turn off notifications on our phones, leave it in the other room, go for walks in nature, and set personal boundaries. Do anything that lets us disconnect to reconnect our minds to singular focuses. We must regain control of the need for our attention. We must take back what is being stolen from us. Eliminate the temptation of hyper-stimulation to let our minds produce our highest potential.