What are we doing?

Do you ever feel like you’re jumping through hoops and you’re just so bored? We log on, we scroll, we interact, we scroll, we forget what we just looked at, we wonder where the day went. And then instead of doing the thing we wanted to do, we pick up our phone and scroll again.

We do it because it’s easy. We don’t need to think.

Our brains are programmed to conserve energy and thinking takes a lot of it. 

We leave ourselves on autopilot most of the time. Nothing wrong with that. Our brains have a very good auto setting. It deals with a lot of our daily life for us and it’s efficient. 

But if we want to actually do something like organise a conference, write a book, or map out a course of action, we need the other bit of our brain, the one that’s not on all the time.

Daniel Kahneman described this as System 1 (autopilot) and System 2 – snappy, huh?

Our autopilot is very happy for us to coast. As long as we’re safe, and fed, and happy, what’s the problem? Anything that makes that easier is good, right? 

But what if the autopilot is steering us in the wrong direction? 

What if instead of keeping us safe and happy, it’s unintentionally leading us into a trap. 

One where all the brilliant human things that make us amazing like our ability to problem solve, innovate, and create are being given up. 

One where we don’t try to do hard things any more because we don’t have to. 

One where we dismiss the value of creativity in favour of an easier life. 

A duller life. 

One where we sit and scroll, and forget what we just watched. 

One where we’re rewarded for scrolling with more 30 second video clips. 

Because there’s always more to scroll. 

And if you get bored on that website, you can flick to another one. 

There’s always something to pay attention to which avoids you spending your attention on something that actually matters. 

Tech companies are dismantling being human

There’s a triple threat from tech companies: apathy, assimilation, and algorithms.

Apathy – we’re happy scrolling. We don’t feel the need to do anything else because our basic needs are met. We’ve been trained to get dopamine hits from ‘likes’ and to enjoy the mindless entertainment available to us in quantity.

Whatever your interests, you can spend hours happily down a rabbit hole looking at pictures or videos, or reading blog posts. Wondering when your favourite show’s next season might get commissioned? There are people happy to tease you with speculation. Wondering what could have happened next to the characters you loved from that show that didn’t get recommissioned? There are endless fan theories and outrage available to you, depending where on that scale you fit.

We don’t have to engage in reality because nothing has to be true any more. We’ve lost that as a standard. 

So we let ourselves be quietly subdued. Happy on the sofa, or under the duvet, scrolling. 

But what if you don’t want to passively consume? What if you’re inspired to create? 

Well, in that case tech has a two pronged attack.

1. Assimilation – we’re encouraged to create works which look the same as other works. Murder mystery book covers look like this. Instagram posts should have these colours and fonts. Stories should include these tropes. It’s comfortable. System 1 expects it. Tick the boxes, and we’re all happy. 

2. Algorithms – some content gets shown and some doesn’t. Why? Because a computer program has been put in charge of marshalling all the content being shared and you either fit the bill, on a range of factors you might not be aware of, or you don’t. And so we all try to please the algorithm. Which means we assimilate. 

And that’s boring. 

A handful of people are able to buck the trend. They might be early adopters on a new platform or a new way of doing things, or they’re funny, or they have a real-world community to support them. 

But most of us are railing against apathy, assimilation, and the algorithm. 

And as a result, we’re letting technology companies dictate our time and attention while deeper, more important issues aren’t getting seen. 

We’re also not giving ourselves a creative outlet we need because we’ve been trained to jump through very dull hoops instead.

And this leads me to ask: what are we doing? 

Why are we dancing to the tech companies’ tune?

What does it mean for creativity?

What about all those topics that don’t get seen because the algorithm doesn’t deem them of interest?

What about all the subtlety, nuance, and the outliers that show there’s much more depth to situations than a straightforward yes/no, right/wrong, like/dislike?

But more than that: why are we so willing to give up on the interesting things that make us human? Our quirks; interests; the ability to know something obscure that would raise eyebrows on Mastermind, or down the pub? 

Of course we like things to be easy. But we like them to be interesting too. And having spent the past 60 years working towards a point where we’re able to express ourselves and be who we want to be, do we really want a world where technology puts us back in a box and says we have to conform or we don’t get seen? 

I don’t.

I’m not sure what the answer is. But I think we need to fight for our creativity and our humanity.