we're all overstimulated
and it's killing us.
Walk with me...
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re watching a movie, replying to texts, scrolling through Instagram, and maybe even eating— all at the same time?
Your focus keeps bouncing between activities because, even while you're doing one thing, your mind is already craving the next.
Sound familiar?
It does, doesn’t it?
Well, if you have that struggle of constantly craving distractions, your brain is overstimulated.
Or in layman terms, your attention span is FRIED.
Many times, the reason you can’t focus on work or find the motivation to do something productive is not because you’re lazy.
I’ts because your brain is just desensitized to activities that don’t actively make it feel good.
And why is this a problem?
Well, people with overstimulated minds find it very hard to focus.
No matter how hard they try, channeling their entire attention to doing just one thing per time is difficult for them, especially when it doesn’t instantly reward it with a flood of dopamine.
(Dopamine is the pleasure chemical in our brains that make us feel good when we do the things we enjoy.)
A common example, which baffles me by the way, is people who rush to read the comments on a video before it even starts to play or while it’s still playing.
They can’t pay attention to the video for too long before needing a distraction.
Now, imagine if such a mind tried to read the entirety of Hamlet in one go.
Yikes.
The truth is we can’t focus.
This generation can’t focus.
And we are COOKED.
We HATE being bored.
We hate being in that space where our mind is not chasing some sort of thrill or satisafaction.
It’s a bigger issue than we realise and many of us are guilty of it.
It’s why we struggle to do focused work.
Even the ability to “multi-task” often stems from the inability to focus on doing one task at a time.
And honestly, it’s not completely our fault.
Nowadays, our minds are constantly being bombarded with one dopamine-induced activity or the other.
From the moment we wake up in the morning, multiple things occupy our attention, all day long, right until we go to bed at night.
It’s an endless cycle and unfortunately, it’s never going to change.
There’s always going to be more YouTube videos to watch.
More books to read.
More songs to listen to.
More conversations to have.
More movies to watch.
TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, etc are infinite-scrolling apps- meaning you can never reach the bottom of the feed.
There’s always going to be an endless stream of activities that are specially curated to stimulate the pleasure receptors of our brains and keep us wanting more.
And today, we have so much to consume.
But you know what we don’t have?
Time.
The time we burn into these activities.
Hours and hours and hours, every single day.
You and I can’t buy or create more time for ourselves and we only get a finite amount to use in our lifetime.
This is the only chance we get to create something meaningful with our existence,so my question to you (and to myself, really) is - do you want to spend the peak time of your life focusing on something that isn’t going anywhere?
It’s easy to blame FOMO.
And I agree, the fear of missing out is a very real thing.
But what’s the worst that would happen if you do “miss out?”
You already missed out on things while you weren’t born.
You will miss out on even more things when you die.
So will your world will come to a catastrophic end if you’re “out of the loop” for a few hours or days or even… months?
The mere thought of that is probably daunting to someone reading this right now.
I conducted an experiment yesterday.
I didn’t use my phone or laptop for 24 hours.
Which meant no internet or social media, so instead I spent my day catching up on chores, reading a few books and conducting some spiritual exercises.
The day felt like a drag at first, but after beating that initial wave of “what the heck am I going to be doing all day?”, I was able to get my mind to settle down and do things it usually wouldn’t enjoy doing.
And it felt good!
I realised that I actually have more time on my hands that I thought I did and that many things I concern myself with on a daily don’t actually concern me.
Yes, I missed out on reels and stories and potential conversations but here I still am, alive and breathing.
And that’s the paradox of the internet.
If you were to scroll through Twitter for say, 5 minutes, you would be exposed to so many thoughts and opinions and news pieces and videos, e.t.c.
And many of this JUST DON’T CONCERN you.
Concern in the sense that, while it’s good to up-to-date with the latest happenings, many of the things you get to “know” everyday are not actually essential for your survival.
Plus, does anybody really think they can “keep up” with everything happening all at once?
This issue of overstimulation and attention deficit is really concerning.
We can’t read for a few minutes without battling the urge to check our phones.
We’re constantly checking for notifications and refreshing our feeds and timelines.
Some of us even text while we drive
or while a lecture a going on (guilty).
Don’t let us talk about the people with TikTok brains, my God…
TikTok is the biggest brain-rot application humankind has seen in a long, long time.
Now, I’m not condemning anybody.
My ability to focus is also not at the level I would like it to be.
(While writing this post, I had to turn my phone off because I kept using it as a distraction when I didn’t know what to write next.)
Our brains are dopamine-hungry, subconsciously refusing to participate in any activity that doesn’t instantly gratify it.
So what’s next, are we ever going to be able to focus again?
Well, my perspective is that since the stimulation stream is never going to run dry, the best we can do is to take charge of attention and focus our time on the things that actually concern us.
Goals. Family. Education. God. Nature. Health. Work. Love. Friendships. Purpose.
We should not be too pre-occupied with EVERY OTHER THING, that we spend our whole lives ignoring what is really important.
The good news is that it’s very easy to reset our brain’s dopamine receptors.
If we can regulate the brain’s stimulation levels, it becomes easier for us to focus and do “difficult” things.
It could be tricky at first, but it’s worth it in the long run.
You can start by just turning off your phone or iPad or whatever.
Seriously, it’s that simple.
Just drop it.
Do something else.
Something that doesn’t excite you as much, but you know is beneficial to you.
Master being comfortable with boredom.
You can take a walk with no music or podcasts playing.
Read a book.
No, not the pirated EPUBs on your phone.
(Not that there’s anything wrong with e-books.)
But an actual book. With pages and words and no pictures.
Stop checking your phone first thing in the morning.
Yes, you’re EAGER to see the messages you missed overnight, but can’t they wait for a few more hours?
When you wake up, say a prayer or read an affirmation.
Take a few minutes to ponder on the fact that you’re alive and be consciously grateful for it.
Plan out your day and set goals.
Do these things slowly, intentionally, every day.
Make it an habit.
Nobody is saying you should permanently avoid all the activities that make you feel good.
We’re saying constantly enjoying cheap dopamine is dangerous.
The dopamine from a workout session? Good.
The dopamine from spending 5 straight hours on TikTok? Not so good.
Honestly, it’s not.
When people say “today’s generation is lazy”, I tend to disagree.
We’re not lazy, we are just overstimulated.
I hate to sound so preachy but only the people that can truly focus in today’s world will ever achieve greatness.
That’s the harsh truth.
None of the greatest people we know built their empires with a distracted mind. Even the biggest internet influencers had to focus to hone their craft properly.
They didn’t get to where they are by just being consumers. They mastered how to leverage on the attention of billions and they got successful through it.
Same goes for the tech companies behind your favourite apps.
It’s time for you and I to stop being mere consumers and start to create.
We have to create.
It’s the only way to suceed.
But we can’t create without focus.
And we can’t focus if we’re overstimulated.
So take a deep breath. Turn off that phone. Close that app.
And focus.
Question - How many times did you get distracted before you finished reading this post?
The lack of images and the long-form text style of this post was intentional.
If you weren’t able to read through it in one go because your mind was begging for distractions,then I hope you get my point.
P.S - More posts coming faster than you think, so stay tuned.
The Girls I Loved In Uni (Part #2)
My first attempt at love in the university didn’t go as planned and I ended up embarassing myself.
Nahhh but the question got mee😂😂😂
I literally dropped my phone three times to sip pepsi in the course of reading this
Sometime ago, when I wanted to read, I would put off my phone.
And then, while reading, I might get tempted to put it on, I might even pick it up but then the stress to put it on and allow it to boot would be stressful so I'll drop it back....why? The stress. That's why.
Why there might not be a perfect way to solve some problems, take the little steps, the very little steps matter!