The World on Shuffle and Repeat

Recently I was running and my mind began to wander, as it does a lot. Whilst in this state of disconnection, I realized that I am often a victim of a major lack of an attention span. Why is this? Why can’t I control what tangent my curious brain decides to go?

As my music continued to shuffle, I started to understand why my mind was on what seemed to be this same pattern. Then I began to think about my drives into work, the way I watch TV in fast-forward, and my recent tendency not to listen to an album in its entirety.  I realized that this is a state of organized chaos of which I have no control.

This chaotic tendency bleeds over into so many facets of my life. Friedrich Nietzsche says that “without music life would be a mistake,” but as of recently, with the trend of music turnover being so fast paced, it feels as though music is the mistake. Now I’m not saying that music is bad, just the ways in which we consume such a beautiful thing is barbaric. Let’s just be honest, the way we take on the world is rather ravenous. People used to memorize movie lines because we watched movies repeatedly due to the lack of new entertainment, and quite frankly channel selections.  Who really remembers song titles and track listings anymore? So much effort goes into strategically planning the flow of music projects only for no one to notice the storyline.

The whole point of this rant is to say that I feel this behavior has a major effect on our everyday lives.  Our brains are now on warp 6--if you don’t understand this reference I suggest watching an episode or two of Star Trek—and at this speed we can’t even keep up with ourselves. It’s so hard to focus on one task when your brain wants to just hit the skip button and move on before you’ve finished.  No one can be effective if they can’t be efficient.

We all could stand to slow down a little bit. Renewing your ability to reserve time to enjoy anything and everything could have marginal benefits in your life, whether it is work, family, or school. Rushing and skipping around do damage to your memories in my opinion.  The current expedient nature of humanity can’t possibly make for our best experience possible. Before cars people had no choice but to take their time getting places, and before the internet we had no choice but to carefully craft our thoughts before sending a letter off.

In the words of Chiddy Bang, “life feels better when you slow down.”

Thanks for reading.

~Q