Our Attention
You will agree with me that big companies like Google, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, are all huge companies competing for our attention, I mean our conscious part when they manage to seduce us into giving them a part of our red heart, they get the option to sell to us, and the more they manage to capture the attention, the more advertising they sell, that brings them big money.
For years I have been swimming against the flow of water, while many of my colleagues sell advanced technological equipment to companies, I cling to human beings, and a great believer to develop in them the awareness, to live a vigilant life, allows them to understand that it is not just technology, I am a great believer in developing people’s awareness of their work and living environment, a gift that nature gave us years ago, and that over time we managed to abandon it because we are troubled by a lot of media that fight for our attention, and that has made us forget to listen to the inner voice.
Along the way, these companies get a few more important things, such as about our tendencies, our preferences, that we do the searches in their engines, we do not always learn, we teach the search engines about our inner world, who we are, and from there the algorithm of the big companies controls us, a search on one computer about Kennedy’s assassination brings one result, and on another computer a different result, this total control of what these companies know about us, our opinions, and from there also the information we receive on the screen, it is likely to correspond to the our worldview.
Don’t get me wrong, I also sin sometimes, yesterday I did a walk with my dear friend, and he commented to me that during the trip I give in to the ringing of the phone, the text messages that come in, and it interferes with our being together, the idea of going on a trip is to let go of this dependence, and good he reminds me, from time to time to return to inner listening, and not to look for reasons that Justify The matter, could I have postponed my dear daughter’s phone call, in retrospect the answer is yes.
Does our habits and behavior change accordingly? I believe so, we used to have time with ourselves, with our thoughts, I used to wait for a friend who was late ten minutes, it was an opportunity to enjoy the surroundings, to let the minutes pass without all kinds of interruptions, I had a lot of minutes like that between things I did, and I always knew how to enjoy them with a cup of coffee, or just stare at myself, learn about another building in the meeting area, look up at the sky because it’s bird migration, but since my cell phone came into my life, something in my behavior is changing and I’m giving in to glimpses on WhatsApp and apps fighting for my attention, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think about giving up my phone, which is an amazing tool, but limit myself from being dependent on it.
Some know how to control it, and those who get lost in the world of the device they have, the next time you walk on the street pay attention to the company of young people, and you will see that they can walk, and their eyes are inside the device, not connected to the immediate environment.
Rafael Saadon – Think Security Online
