“It’s time to Start avoiding ‘AVOIDING’ Things”
Greetings Dear Reader-it seems that you overcame the Intuitive thought of AVOIDING SOMETHING WORTHWILE-i.e., this Blog, and perhaps the Thirst for Knowledge, to learn something new, and to see the world and its working from a Different Lens is what brings you here; or perhaps, I would say, it was your mere entrapment into the Social Media World and the Internet, aka THE WEB(in literal sense)that made you a captive of your phone and feeling like having nothing to do, or to avoid that, this was your easy way out.
Nonetheless, The Internet and this growing technology are LITERALLY DRIVING your Life-like right now, it might be Benefitting you-by passing on Information and Insights from one person(or one organization)to the other who might be miles away from you, yet the thoughts cannot be contained, rather, are easily shared and made accessible. But, most of the time, we all tend to AVOID the pros of technology, and somehow(well, by proper marketing, in-depth analysis of your liking-disliking and whatnot THE BIG TECHIES), this technology makes you AVOID the benefits of it, and keeps you indulged in content that makes you repulsive, sluggish and promotes procrastination. So, the present ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY and the ENHANCING AI ADD-ONS to that technology, are brilliantly exploiting the human mind and the way it works-benefitting not us, but the companies and the services that we avail; a Subscription, which is more of a Payment that you make to ENTRAP yourself in such WONDERS OF ENTERTAINMENT, if that is what you would like to call it!
I find it really amusing when some of my friends are shocked to see that I don’t use Netflix, Prime or any such streaming applications/services, and they usually TRY TO SELL THAT TO ME-with one thing in common-showing how CHEAP and AFFORDABLE THIS ALL IS(for instance, the Amazon Prime Subscription is around the 1.5grand-an amount they would say is ratherly spent when you go to have a meal outside-that too once!). I know that AVOIDING is becoming our Habit, but for some time, try to overcome it and just see how YOU ARE DIGUISFULLY EXPLOITED(and before proceeding, I do not PROMOTE nor ENCOURAGE you to cancel any subscriptions that you have-all I am doing is showing the Facts and the things that You had Overlooked or perhaps AVOIDED)!
ONLINE-ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES
So, when you buy a Subscription to such platforms or services, the first week is/can be considered as the MOST-ACTIVE WEEK(considering and an assumption that addiction would not be the case and that your time spent doesn’t keep increasing with time); because during this time, most of you would be extraordinarily hyped and thus, you would spend most of the time on the App. In general, if you consider a Show, then as far as I have seen, many of the shows’ Episodes have an approximate Length of around 20 to 30mins. And then, there are seasons. While some shows keep it low and end within one, or max of two seasons, some blast up and go up to 10 or sometimes even 12 seasons. So each season has its own amount of Episodes. Well, the math now becomes clear. Just Multiply the Average time, the average Number of Episodes per Season, Number of Seasons and you would see how much YOU ACTUALLY PAY ONLY TO TAKE AWAY YOUR TIME and then, it is your same self that says that “I WONDER WHY I DON’T HAVE TIME TO REST OR DO WHAT I LIKE?” I am not saying that Entertainment is BAD-it is needed, and honestly, without entertainment life becomes tasteless-the problem arises when there is no STOPAGE. The features like Auto-play, and then, excellent writing, ending every episode on a Cliff-Hanger so that you are eager to watch the next episode and the very fact that mobile phones and you spending time on it is more normal than you sitting and dedicating time to reading helps you to stay on the app longer.
Evolving over the years, the humans way back then, prioritized INSTANT GRATIFICATION more over DELAYED GRATIFICATION(because life then was highly uncertain, and living with a Mind that promoted instant gratification was what worked best for humans back in ancient times). This is the reason that we ratherly love to watch a Netflix Show for three hours and find that more amusing than sitting and studying a research paper that would help us in an Exam coming the next Month. By exploiting such instinctive behaviours, most of us are literally CAPTIVE to these Technologies. And they have consequently made us learn and make it a habit to AVOID THE NON-GRATIFYING PRACTICES; THOSE THINGS THAT HAVE NO DOPAMINE HIT ON THE INSTANT EFFORT-RESULT BASIS ARE SOMETHING THAT WE ARE LESS INCLINED TO DO!
Unable to understand what I mean-take this for instance- “Suppose you had a Project to do and there are two ways you could do them. The first is a Repetitive way-something that had been done for the past 10 years repeatedly by every student who was once your Age, and now, you could repeat the same thing and avoid failing it; or the alternative, try something New, something Ingenious that has a high scope of Failing, but something is never done before. What would you choose of these 2 Options?” Since this is Hypothetical, I know this is what the majority would answer- “Alas, it would be a shame to copy-I would rather make something ORIGINAL, and failure is what I would be least concerned of!” but when this comes in the real world, I know that 99% of us would choose a path where there is NOTHING TO LEARN, NOR TO EXPLORE-a path chosen just for AVOIDING FAILURE; but we overlook the fact that in doing so, we avoid LEARNING. The very practice of PUNISHING FAILURE and REWARDING JUST SUCCESS is what has been programming in the minds of the students(who eventually end up as the country runners)that AVOID FAILURE and JUST ATTRACT SUCCESS! This simple trigger that the Educational Institutes have laid forth to ensure proper maintenance of grades, and the fact that “Fear is the Best Driving Force” as fear of failing would drive students to perform well and such are the reasons why institutes opt for such ways-all this is misperceived by the brain and what it has narrowed to is AVOID AN UNEXPLORED PATH=AVOID FAILURE!
Just as REWARD makes us repeat something, the vice-versa happens with things that DON’T BRING ANY REWARDS & BRING THE CONTRAST-we avoid them! Avoiding an “unwalked” path, an unventured voyage ensures that there would be NO ROOM FOR FAILURE, but it kills the hunger to explore. Thus, innovation is being killed(and I won’t go on to blame one thing, for this is how the SYSTEM is working-making us walk a fixed set path, rewarding REPETITION, and IMPEDING Exploration and Creativity by PUNISHING Failures which are, but a step of growth in a direction that has an endless amount of undiscovered gems and treasures). Humans were Explorers-who took on expeditions unknown to find new things and learn from their mistakes. But a wrong turn has made us all walk down a deteriorating path, making us, what we famously say in Hindi- “Lakeer ka Fakeer”-walking down the same KNOWN PATH, and doing things in the same old ways-limiting ourselves JUST to AVOID FAILURE, coming at a very high price of sacrificing INNOVATION, TINKERING, DEVELOPMENT, and THINKING OUT OF THE BOX-SOMETHING NEW!
On a larger scale, we have slowly made this an INSTITIVE HABIT-AVOIDANCE! The Biggest example is AVOIDING CONFRONTATION(For many of you, this would not seem like a problem or something to even think of-thus, for now, all I would say is that-” Time Will Show all if you are unable to EXTRAPOLATE where we are heading”). This is my Strong Belief and opinion that as time would pass, HUMANS would AVOID CONFRONTATION, and its precursors can be seen from now itself. “If someone breaks the queue and jump-cuts ahead of you, would you rather CONFRONT that person, or just look around and EXPECT him to realize what he did?” Or another scenario- “When walking in a Crowded Station, and you come across a person who genuinely needs your Help, would you Help him out, or Avoiding is your first resort-thinking that someone else would look and help?” You may notice this, but this is a fact that we all are slowly ADAPTING ourselves to the things around us, and this even includes ADAPTING and LIVING WITH OUR PROBLEMS as well.
To be honest, this is the very reason why I first noticed this, and thought to write about the topic! You see, I was having some Online Video-Based meetings with my Uncle, and he pointed out that there was a weak Internet connection. A week later, we had another online meeting, and again he said the same thing, and then again. The third time, it was he who made me REALIZE that what I was doing-AVOIDING TO DEAL WITH MY PROBLEMS, and instead of getting them solved, I was somehow ADJUSTING and ADAPTING to the problem. The small words, “Why Are You AVOIDING the Problems?” which might seem insignificant to most, made me question THE WAY I LIVED and made me realize THAT HOW THIS WAS BECOMING A PATTERN-NOT JUST IN ME, BUT I PRESUME ALMOST ALL OF US(sadly, while writing this Blog, I still haven’t fixed this problem-hopefully I will have done that when this Blog is out there and you all are reading it).
APPROACHING THE END
If you made it till here, firstly, Thank You For sticking around, and secondly, I know what many of you would be thinking- “What is he even Writing-first starting with some Great Words that required a lot of attention to understand, then came the Explanation on Technology, followed by some discussion on Web-Entertainment Services, and then what not-What is the MAIN IDEA of this Blog?” To answer that the MAIN IDEA of the Blog is the fact that AVOIDANCE isn’t something that is affecting a single field or a space-the fact that it has a DIRECT IMPACT on the human brain and its working is what makes this SO DANGEROUS.
Avoidance has affected our Psychology and the way we perceive things around us and how we even respond to them. From Learning to Enjoying, and even being who we are. The fact that Overlooking and Avoiding the Positives with increased attention to the NEGATIVES of the present time might not show the effect now, but over time, its compounded result would inevitably show up. The decreased Attention Span, A Constant need to Be Entertained to avoid boredom, and whatnot; these things are the initial triggers-some early stage signs that if looked upon and worked on now, won’t have a negative impact later. Avoiding them(which I know many, or I should say Most of us are doing) may seem to be bringing JOY now, but eventually, I am sure it won’t!
In fact, this topic(i.e., Avoidance and its Consequences)is so vast that if followed up in detail and depth, this Blog would rather become an Article-so seeing the scope, these were some of the PROMINENT topics which I addressed. So yes-I hope this Blog, a bit different than my usual writing, along with a rather perplexing language, might have “hopefully” TRIGGERED something that might NOT LET YOU AVOID INTROSPECTING YOUR HABIT OF AVOIDANCE and sooner or later things turn out well for all!
So yes, with this, the Blog has come to an end, will catch you all back with the Next Blog-till then, Keep Learning, and Keep Growing😄
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#The Blog was Originally Published by me on 5th July 2023 on My Website
