Month: August 2021

I’ve just read this article in by Oliver Burkeman _The Guardian_:

At best, we're on Earth for around 4,000 weeks – so why do we lose so much time to online distraction? 🔗

It is an edited extract from his book _Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It_, published on 26th August 2021.

I recognise and certainly experience a lot of the symptoms of being distracted that he is pointing out.

>Social media is engineered to constantly adapt to our interests. No wonder the rest of reality seems unable to compete

>We mustn’t let Silicon Valley off the hook, but we should be honest: much of the time, we give in to distraction willingly

>When we succumb to distraction, we’re motivated by the desire to flee something painful about our experience of the present

>What we think of as distractions aren’t the cause of our being distracted. They’re just the places we go to seek relief

The title of this post comes from _**Burnt Norton**_ the first of T.S.Eliot’s _Four Quartets_:

>Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration