Shut Up, Zuckerberg

"Our bodies are programmed to consume fat and sugars because they're rare in nature. ... In the same way, we're biologically programmed to be attentive to things that stimulate: content that is gross, violent, or sexual and that gossip which is humiliating, embarrassing, or offensive. If we're not careful, we're going to develop the psychological equivalent of obesity. We'll find ourselves consuming content that is least beneficial for ourselves or society as a whole." Danah Boyd in the 'Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You', Eli Pariser, 2011.

This particular paragraph got me thinking: I'm a lil bit overweight physically, is it possible that I'm also psychologically overweight..?

Honestly, I know nothing about psychology. But I gotta agree that the feeling after binge-scrolling 9gag (or YouTube comment section) is close to the feeling after binge-eating fat and sugars. It initially made me happy, but at the end of the day, I feel crappy. Stuffed. Guilty.

The effect becomes more tangible when that particular action distracts me from the work I should be doing. Between finding out the reason why Hannah Baker killed herself and revising the literature review, which one I should do first? A tough choice, right?

I've been constantly in that battle for the past one year. To my surprise, for one year I had to write roughly 50.000 words (approx. 150 pages) of academic work in total with no/minimal supervision. My limited capability in both substance and language is one thing. But combined with the distraction of the mighty internet, it is such a daunting task to be done.

But yet, it's all done on time. And I feel obliged to share how it's done so that any mediocre students would have a hope.

In the world full of distraction, doing a deep work such as reading a long passage or writing is difficult. Read one paragraph of a journal and the notification beep. Write one sentence and suddenly an urge to check Facebook is unbearable. You intended to just check for one minute. But twenty minutes had been wasted before you realise. The cycle goes on and on.

First of all, if you get hooked on 'the internet' and it has crippled your productivity, don't feel hopeless yet. Let me tell you that it is a perfectly normal situation. Why? Because they are actually designed to be addictive.

The love you get for your artistic post of your hand holding an ice cream makes you feel validated. The quest of interesting information on Facebook feels exhilarating. Even though you haven't found any interesting post, you just keep scrolling because you believe that you might find one. Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, 9gag, etc, are the companies that targeting us to spend more time in them.  Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion. Netflix is an American entertainment company with a $6.77 billion revenue in 2015. 9gag is a Hong Kong-based online platform with the estimated annual revenue of $5.4 million. They are profit-seeking companies after all. They'll do anything to keep us on the hook.

Now the choice is completely ours, do we want to let them dictate how we live our life or the other way? With this awareness, I sometimes whisper, "Shut up, Zuckerberg" every time I tempted to open Facebook in the middle of working. Zuckerberg won't help me to graduate, will he?

But still, a knowledge alone won't stop us from doing what we shouldn't be doing. I know that deep-fried Oreo have no nutrition except fat, but still, I eat plenty of it.

We need a strategy. In facing the challenge of writing an essay, sometimes the reason why I ended up scrolling timeline aimlessly is that because I have no idea what to do. To be precise, I have no idea what to do first. I got intimidated by the amount of work I should be doing. Then I choose to avoid the tension by looking at something more entertaining.

The most effective strategy that I've tried is dividing the work into small friendly chunks and start from there. If it is still intimidating, then make it smaller. For instance, you gotta write 3000 words of an essay about how public opinion affect policy. You have narrowed down the topic, you made the outline, but you have no idea how to start and you found yourself watching cats jumping from the cucumber for the past one hour.

A broad essay outline is never sufficient for me. I often still have no idea what to do. I have to break it down into each paragraph and start from there. For the imaginary essay above, let's say I have written the main ideas of every paragraph and start with 150 words of the conceptualisation of public opinion. When I wrote that exact paragraph, all I have to do is focusing myself to finish the 150 words and forget the rest, let alone the other essays. It is less intimidating and feels more feasible. In addition, sparing 15 minutes in the beginning of the day to make a meticulous schedule is also helpful for avoiding me from the confusion.

To triumph over the distractions, I put purpose in every boring stuff I have to do. In reading journals, for instance, I gotta know what answer that I'm looking for and if anything beyond that interests me, that's great. In writing, I gotta know the purpose of my writing as well as its each paragraph so I don't feel lost. If I enjoy the work, I often am surprised by how not appealing all distractions become.

Beyond the essay writing, even in a free time, the feeling after doing any deep work that actually beneficial for me is rewarding. Finishing a good book never leave me crappy. Instead, I feel contented and inspired. Engaging in a fruitful discussion and being productive never leave me guilty. Instead, I feel happier. I come close to a conclusion that doing a deep work is one of the keys to happiness. And like every 'key to happiness' phrase, it is not an easy thing to do. Avoiding the less useful materials dispersed in basically everywhere requires serious determination.

If we are accustomed to measuring the physical obesity by using a body mass index calculator, I guess I can tell if I start to develop a psychological 'excess fat'. The feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness, while my life's actually just fine, is one of the strongest signals. Whenever it strikes, I cut down the fat and sugars (put down my phone/close the streaming tab), put my shoes on (grab a good book/click the new entry button on my blog), and start working out (reading/writing).

Just as working your body out, you'll say "eating chips on the couch is more fun and easy" (scrolling Facebook is more fun and easy). But which one do you prefer? A crappy feeling of being stuffed and guilty or a sense of a true fulfilment in life?

The choice is all yours.

Of course, it's not limited to reading or writing. Creating music, drawing something, basically every activity that requires a demanding cognitive task could be defined as a deep working (Newport, 2016).