Digital Mayhem: We Have a Name for it Now… and that Can Actually Help

Digital Mayhem is my term… behavioral economists must have a more clinical term. We’ll get to more on that in a minute.

Have you ever broken a little rule that wouldn’t have any real consequence to you or anyone else due to the circumstances?

Say, like scooting around a corner at a 4-way stop because the others ahead of you were going straight through or turning away from you.

Everything’s fine until some permanently overtightened uber-rule-enforcing-sub-human life form takes exception and all hell breaks loose.

Suffice to say, there is no shortage of over-tightened wing nuts out there.

Sadly, this subset of the population seems to be growing at a rapid rate.

As Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism, has said—

You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”

Well, you can. And we do. (It’s a double-negative thing).

Do you ever get a strange feeling, one that you can’t quite put your finger on… but something doesn’t feel quite right? Okay, nothing feels right? We can go with that…

Maybe you haven’t had enough sleep in a very long time. Maybe it’s all the noise. Maybe it’s the constant go go go. Or the now now now. It couldn’t be the more more more. But it could be the umpteenth unbelievably outrageous story on the news when you thought it just couldn’t get any more outrageous. 

All around us, nearly every moment of the day, messages are battling for space in our minds. They are promoting products, messages, and world-views. Often times, the urgent voices will be far louder than the significant ones.”

–Joshua Becker, creator of BecomingMinimalist.com

This post was initially inspired by “Seth’s [Godin’s] Blog: Cognitive load is real” 

What does that even mean–Cognitive Load?

Of course, Wikipedia has the answer. You can learn all about it here. The short answer is it refers to the amount of working memory resources being used. That’s… in our heads—not in our devices.

This is where I fess-up to a digital crime and admit to a bait-and-switch, albeit unintentional. You see, even with Wikipedia, Google and Dictionary.com at my fingertips, I will sometimes assume I already know what a term I’ve never seen before means.

Naturally, I leaped to the conclusion that cognitive load must be a new expression for all of this digital mayhem we’re exposed to every day of our modern lives. I mean, who wouldn’t?

Then Seth hooks me with “Disneyworld is stressful.”

What? Whaaat?

Mickey stressful? Minnie stressful? What’s he saying? Heresy!

The occasional visitor has far less fun than you might expect… every decision requires attention. And attention is exhausting. And it’s stressful because the choices made appear to be expensive. There’s a significant opportunity cost to doing this not that. You’re leaving tomorrow, what are you going to skip? What if it’s not worth the line? What are you missing?”

Are you feeling the angst? “And it’s not just Disneyworld. It’s now the whole world.”

Really Seth? Disneyworld and opportunity cost in the same sentence?

Repeat after me, Seth… b-u-z-z-k-i-l-l. Buzzkill.

If that doesn’t make your head hurt enough, you can read the rest of his post here…

Cognitive load is real

WARNING: It might make your head explode.

But, what can we do about it? How do we keep heads from “literally” exploding?

Let’s work to raise our awareness of the digital culture we’re living and interacting within.

We must actively retrain ourselves to identify both the messages and their source… then become consciously aware and make intentional and thoughtful choices and decisions that are in our own best interest – not that of outside influencers.

Focus is often a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” 

– John Carmack, videogame developer (couldn’t have picked that one better)

Make time for quiet thinking. Just-thinking-time. Let your mind wander. For me, that first hour in the morning is dedicated to just being quiet… letting the mind go down whatever weird path it wants to follow.

In Hugh MacLeod’s blog on his site @gapingvoid, he wrote a piece called, “How to hit reset on your life” which shares some pretty good advice.

Hugh explains…

I was doing everything right. I was reading all the right business books, followed all the right names on Twitter, name-dropped all the right people at parties, knew all the right buzzwords, followed all the right fashions and trends, had all the right opinions about all the right companies, voted for all the right candidates, supported all the right causes, sent out all the right “thoughts and prayers” at all the right times on Facebook.”

This is exactly what I’m talking about, even though the real list of possibilities is much longer than his.

So, what did he do?

First, he started reading what he referred to as proper literature (aka – the books you should have read in college… but didn’t).

Then he went cold turkey on consuming digital media, podcasts and such… “and [started] listening to music properly again, the way I did when I was a young man. With mindfulness and intensity, not just something you put on for background noise.”

“What can I say? It worked. After a few weeks of this new regime, life was back in full color.” –Hugh MacLeod

Epilogue…

I’m thinking something like Hyperactivated Overload Attention Reflex Disorder (HOARD) would be more meaningful than Digital Mayhem. Then we could have three types. Those being Type G, Type M, and Type N.

G for the constant Go Go Go, M for everyone else who is demanding More More More, and N for those who need it Now Now Now, of course.

This is great news though. Seriously, it is. Here’s why…

Behavioral psychologists have found that when you can give a name to something it’s easier to handle. For many of those uncomfortable feelings we get, just naming them makes them better or go away altogether.

No, I’m not suggesting you call your anxiousness Ted or Bethany. Just greet it in your mind and say, “Hey anxiety, I see you and I’m feeling you. Now I’ve got it… you can leave now.”

You try it… after me now, “Hey, it’s my old friend Digital Mayhem… how are you today, Buddy?

You feel better now, don’t you?

What do you think? Are you the HOARDing type? Or, should we keep it simple and stick with Digital Mayhem and call it good? 

Thanks for dropping by LifeUntucked.net

I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read my post today.

All the best… oh, and be untucked.

Copyright © 2019 Jeff Meister