“Lost in the ether”.
I heard someone use that term recently. Maybe you have too.
Perhaps that’s where you are right now reading this.
It made me think about a book.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is an ambitious attempt to explain a part of the human mind. He argues that near complete control over consciousness is not only possible but necessary to achieve optimal human experience.
Csikszentmihalyi describes optimal human experience as a “flow state”, induced by certain “flow activities”.
A typical “flow activity” includes:
Ultimately, Csikszentmihalyi’s writing isn’t the easiest to digest. He makes bold assertions about history and culture, and tries to extend his worldview into areas where it may not always fit. But his research reminded me of one activity in particular:
Scrolling.
If you think about it, scrolling is almost a flow activity. There’s a clear goal: to find engaging content. You concentrate–willingly or not–all your attention on the screen in front of you and on moving your index finger vertically along it. You aren’t thinking about yourself, or anything at all, and hours seem to pass by in minutes.
But not once, when scrolling mindlessly, have I ever felt the ability to be in control.
I think that’s because I’m not, my unconscious is.
I read something else interesting recently.
It was a quote, from this book:
“The ability to shuffle atoms around is destiny”.
From the earliest days of human history to now, this seems to be true. What we can build and how we can live depends solely on our ability to manipulate the materials in the environment around us.
A fishing rod, a boat, or a sword doesn’t matter as much now as a computer in a data center somewhere.
All of those atoms that we have manipulated to provide ourselves with endless content slot machines hold what may be some interesting data: what we search for unconsciously.
Scrolling truly seems to be a form of unconscious search. Perhaps my evidence for this is weak. I base this entire claim on whatever you’re seeing in your social media feeds:
Perhaps it’s 20 second food recipes.
Or funny videos over clips of cars racing.
For a lot of men, it’s hyper-sexualized content.
I could be completely wrong though, maybe we’re not lost in the ether.
Perhaps we are consciously choosing these things.