Like Type-II Diabetes of the Brain
I am intrigued by an idea of "false flow" that was raised in a friend's LJ today. No, not as in menstrual issues, but as in mental issues around work and productivity.
The idea of "flow" is one that's talked about a lot in discussions of work, productivity, creativity, satisfaction, and ultimately happiness. A simple summary of my understanding of the concept is that one has "flow," perhaps drops into a mental-space of moving easily through work and ideas, and looks up several hours later surprised at the passage of time. Weeks can pass with several days of good "flow" in them or with little or none. Artists, writers, scientists, developers, designers, anyone really, doing any kind of work, can describe that happy feeling of everything just clicking into place and one thing leading to the next. Or not. And then there's frustration, disappointment, disenchantment, and depression.
So the idea that came up in a friend's LJ, while she was talking about how some weeks are good weeks and others not, was an idea of "false flow." She opined that perhaps she spends so much time on the internet because it feels to her brain like flow: "information is being processed, but it's not information I necessarily need right now; or ever," but maybe the brain can't really tell that on some level.
Whoa. and Yes. I mean, yes, that makes sense to me about patterns I get myself into. And I wonder if it's like type-II diabetes for the brain, in that we evolved a taste for sugar and fat because we needed these to survive. We like them, they make us happy. But our bodies have millions of years of scarcity behind them and only a few hundred or thousand years max of plentiful food-and less than that of readily available processed sugar.
I believe that for myself (with my family history of obesity and type-II diabetes) there's a risk that simply "listening to my body" with respect to sugars and fats yields false signals and I must learn to listen more carefully and be more acutely aware of what might be a short-term desire or need that leads to long-term health issues. I have to ask myself in a "top-down" processing way what I "really" want with respect to food because my first instinct may not be aligned with how I generally want to eat or with what make me feel healthy and happy in my body, even just over the course of a single day or single meal.
And now I'm thinking that there's a great deal of surfing around on the web that I might get myself stuck into because in the short-term it feels like it's satisfying a strong need I have for thinking and processing information. But if at the end of a day or week or month, I feel like I've wasted a lot of time, and I feel unsatisfied and disappointed, then perhaps I have been eating empty-brain-calories that aren't really nourishing me the way I desire and need in the long term or even just over the course of a day or hour.
I don't think this is really anything profoundly new, in terms of "Oh, Hey, cruising the internet feels good at the time but may not make me happy long-term," but the idea of it providing a false sense of "flow" is being incredibly helpful in terms of thinking about why I keep doing it, even when I know it's not helping. Top-down I know it's not helping, but from the inside it might feel like this bite of informational-brownie might just provide me with the tools I need to improve my chances of escaping a saber-tooth-tiger.... if the saber-tooth tiger is amused and distracted by silly captions over his head. :) And this insight should, I hope, help me decide when the cruising the internet is being a helpful part of my productivity or fun and satisfying relaxation, and when it's more like eating something that will just make me feel gross.
Which brings me full-circle to the internet having provided me with an incredibly useful idea about how the internet is not always useful. All things in moderation... especially moderation! :)
The idea of "flow" is one that's talked about a lot in discussions of work, productivity, creativity, satisfaction, and ultimately happiness. A simple summary of my understanding of the concept is that one has "flow," perhaps drops into a mental-space of moving easily through work and ideas, and looks up several hours later surprised at the passage of time. Weeks can pass with several days of good "flow" in them or with little or none. Artists, writers, scientists, developers, designers, anyone really, doing any kind of work, can describe that happy feeling of everything just clicking into place and one thing leading to the next. Or not. And then there's frustration, disappointment, disenchantment, and depression.
So the idea that came up in a friend's LJ, while she was talking about how some weeks are good weeks and others not, was an idea of "false flow." She opined that perhaps she spends so much time on the internet because it feels to her brain like flow: "information is being processed, but it's not information I necessarily need right now; or ever," but maybe the brain can't really tell that on some level.
Whoa. and Yes. I mean, yes, that makes sense to me about patterns I get myself into. And I wonder if it's like type-II diabetes for the brain, in that we evolved a taste for sugar and fat because we needed these to survive. We like them, they make us happy. But our bodies have millions of years of scarcity behind them and only a few hundred or thousand years max of plentiful food-and less than that of readily available processed sugar.
I believe that for myself (with my family history of obesity and type-II diabetes) there's a risk that simply "listening to my body" with respect to sugars and fats yields false signals and I must learn to listen more carefully and be more acutely aware of what might be a short-term desire or need that leads to long-term health issues. I have to ask myself in a "top-down" processing way what I "really" want with respect to food because my first instinct may not be aligned with how I generally want to eat or with what make me feel healthy and happy in my body, even just over the course of a single day or single meal.
And now I'm thinking that there's a great deal of surfing around on the web that I might get myself stuck into because in the short-term it feels like it's satisfying a strong need I have for thinking and processing information. But if at the end of a day or week or month, I feel like I've wasted a lot of time, and I feel unsatisfied and disappointed, then perhaps I have been eating empty-brain-calories that aren't really nourishing me the way I desire and need in the long term or even just over the course of a day or hour.
I don't think this is really anything profoundly new, in terms of "Oh, Hey, cruising the internet feels good at the time but may not make me happy long-term," but the idea of it providing a false sense of "flow" is being incredibly helpful in terms of thinking about why I keep doing it, even when I know it's not helping. Top-down I know it's not helping, but from the inside it might feel like this bite of informational-brownie might just provide me with the tools I need to improve my chances of escaping a saber-tooth-tiger.... if the saber-tooth tiger is amused and distracted by silly captions over his head. :) And this insight should, I hope, help me decide when the cruising the internet is being a helpful part of my productivity or fun and satisfying relaxation, and when it's more like eating something that will just make me feel gross.
Which brings me full-circle to the internet having provided me with an incredibly useful idea about how the internet is not always useful. All things in moderation... especially moderation! :)