As all drivers know, rubbernecking is a marvel of human stupidity.
Out of nowhere, traffic slows to a crawl on an otherwise clear highway, and after a few miles of frustration, it becomes clear that the accident is on the other side of the road. Our precious time is wasted because of some moron’s fascination with another person’s misery.
Of course, we all know what happens next. Eventually, it becomes our turn to see the accident, and what do we do?
We look.
Increasingly in today’s world, the state of our attention feels like digital rubbernecking.
Information comes at us like a tidal wave, rather than a stream, and we no longer have control over what we look at. Thousands of news stories, social media updates and spam emails pull our attention away from the road ahead of us every single day.
A recent example of this lack of control is the resurgence of Donald Trump in the news cycle.
For a brief period in November, after disappointing midterm results and a somewhat sad campaign announcement, it seemed as though Trump would not dominate election coverage like he had in 2016.
Then, last week, Trump had dinner with Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, two public figures whose anti-Semitism is well-documented. The meeting upset many people, who called for Trump to apologize for the dinner and denounce his guests, which kicked off a familiar cycle of outrage and disbelief. The story was front page news for days, and there are still articles being written about the fallout.
For people who had already made up their mind about Trump, this latest story posed a challenge. The events, while offensive, were nothing new. This was not the former president’s first run-in with white nationalism or anti-Semitism. And yet, like a car accident on the other side of the highway, it was difficult to look away.
Reading more than I’d like to admit about the situation, I was reminded of some great advice I received from a leader at work:
“Set clear priorities each day – otherwise someone else’s priorities will become yours.”
It’s tempting to believe that we each have the self-discipline to filter through the noise and focus on what matters most, but often we’re up against powerful companies whose business model relies on getting our attention. Without a system in place, we find ourselves doing less of what matters to us and more of what matters to them:
- Reacting to divisive headlines
- Scrolling through curated social media
- Responding to email promotions
In my experience, the most effective way to protect our attention is to remove distractions at their source.
Deleting social media, switching to a media-lite diet and ruthlessly cutting out junk email may feel extreme at the start, but they are the only solutions I’ve found that guarantee my priorities come first. After all, if highway medians were 20 feet tall no one would rubberneck.
For some reason, I feel better cutting other addictive substances out of my life, like junk food or alcohol, than I do the everyday digital tools that have gotten the best of me. But there’s really no difference.
Lately, whenever I feel frustrated by my misdirected attention, the first question I ask is:
Can I look away?
Chances are, the answer is no.
– Emmett
“The truth is that you are living in a system that is pouring acid on your attention every day, and then you are being told to blame yourself and to fiddle with your own habits while the world’s attention burns.”
– Johann Hari
What I’m Reading:
The Struggles of Being a Creator – Jack Raines
“I started writing Young Money in July 2021. I have published two pieces per week basically every week since this blog’s inception, and this is blog number 137. I didn’t make a dime from this thing until April 2022, after I had written ~90 pieces.”
We Have Fires Everywhere – Jon Mooallem, NYT Magazine 2019
“She was silent for a moment. Then something started beeping. It was the low-fuel alert. She was almost out of gas, though it ultimately wouldn’t matter. Moments later, her car caught fire.”
What I’m Listening To:
The Complete History and Strategy of Enron – Acquired Podcast