How to do nothing

I read a book earlier this year titled How To Do Nothing, which describes how we can take a break from the omnipresent attention economy, and take time to develop more meaningful connections.

However, I think the sentiments in the book are more applicable today than ever before. With millions in mandated quarantine, many of us are turning to our devices to simulate the connections that we had prior to isolation.

Apps like Facebook are “just trying to keep the lights on”, as it “[strains] to deal with skyrocketing usage”, while Netflix and YouTube have lowered their default quality on videos to deal with immense traffic. We can only imagine how much TikTok’s metrics have increased, with its short-form video keeping users hooked for hours at a time.

In some ways, it’s ironic that society as a whole is becoming its least introspective when we are all separated. Instead, we seek to resolve our anxieties by looking outward – consuming an endless stream of news articles, statistics, and data – only to avoid digesting what we’ve seen by inundating our minds with entertainment and social media.

This is dangerous for a number of reasons. Any app with an infinite feed only becomes more addictive the more its company learns about us, and the algorithms that back content engines continue to improve each day.

We risk diving deeper into our own bubbles, as we are fed content that already falls in line with what we believe. As Peter Thiel wrote, “the most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself”.

However, thinking for yourself isn’t possible without introspection. This isn’t a plea to be more productive or to “make the most of each day”, but rather to take the time to disconnect. No matter how appealing the digital world may be at times, all we are staring at are pixels. Would we even notice if our feed were autogenerated, instead of being filled with actual content posted by real people?

It’s important to avoid deluding ourselves into believing that this facsimile of meaningful connection is the real world. Although this has been an increasingly prevalent problem, it’s been exacerbated further by current circumstances.

Instead, we should ask ourselves – can we take some time each day to do nothing?