Distractions and Missteps

 1. Feels like a winter doldrum continues to set over our house, as the weeks run together and little changes. But I've come back to the recurring thought I shared a few weeks ago about the continued use of social media and, for me in particular, in Twitter. I've written on this matter several times over the past several years in this space, and I'm not sure I have any particularly new insights.

But I will say that the thought that perfectly encapsulates the risk of social media to me is from T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" - 

Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker

Over the stained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction distraction

Filled with fancies and empty meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration

Distraction. Empty meaning. No concentration. Certainly social media can be different things to different people, and there may be different values they get out of them. But, as with any medium, the choice to engage can often reveal things about true selves. We see people become more vulgar and meanspirited then they ever would be in person (that is, until, the digital self and real world self merge, with disastrous consequences). For me, it reveals a compulsive behavior to seek more information, more knowledge, more content. In the end, I feel as if I end up knowing more, but understanding less; and that juxtaposition makes me uneasy, uncomfortable, and then susceptible to the same impulses.

I've also written how I think social media (as with everything else) impacts our cognitive load. The concept behind cognitive load is that there is only so much information that can be "stored" in our working memory from day to day, and the more we feel it that capacity with certain information (i.e., tweets and Facebook statutes and YouTube videos), the less we have available for other information.

For me - the distraction and impact on cognitive load - I think has coalesced over the past several weeks to ruin the energy and focus I had on the health front. It required work, mental work, each day for me to stay focused on the health front - to plan out each meal, determine the caloric impact of my food choices, carving out time for walking on the treadmill. When I am like Alice, tumbling down rabbit holes on Twitter, I end up having less mental energy to figure out all the details on my health choices. The last several weeks has been a lesson, for me, in how ignoring the impact of cognitive load, and failing to make choices understanding the impact it will have, have caused me to backtrack on my health goals.

Its disappointing to say the least; but when your a turtle climbing a mountain (the metaphor I choose for framing my weight loss journey), there will be inevitable setbacks when you slide the down the mountain. One is left with either continuing the walk, or succumbing to gravity. The good part of this is that being able to diagnosis what I believe to be the underlying cause gives me the ability to establish structures to avoid those pitfalls; to employ a mindfulness towards my engagement with certain platforms, a mindfulness to help keep focus.

The climb continues.

2. See above for the health front. Hopefully better news to share next week.

3. The reading progress continues for the year. I finished No. 8 - The Deficit Myth and No. 9 - The Topeka School this week. Both were good reads, if a bit challenging at times (in the right ways). I've started Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, which has been an interesting middle grade fiction read thus far. Due to the nature of what has been available from the Library and what holds of mine that have come in are now available, the next couple weeks figure to heavily consist of middle grade fiction reads. As I've said previously, the genre has quickly become one of my favorites due to the diversity of subjects, characters, and stories it tends to share (and they always reaffirm the reading for pure enjoyment aspect).