Gain back attention

I’ve been thinking lately about how hard it is for me nowadays to slow down and enjoy deep focus. It feels as if I became addicted to the dopamine of jumping from one thing to another feeding my brain with the illusion of productivity. I think it’s a consequence of the fast-paced world we live in. I’ve gotten used to the endless scrolling on social media, the synchronous working style that tools like Slack have brought to us, and the constant notifications from my phone and watch. I feel my attention has been hijacked by the digital world. And I don’t like it. I want my attention back.

To do so, I’ve been trying to change my habits. The first one is to prefer asynchronous communication over synchronous. For instance, in the Tuist Slack group, we encourage more users and contributors to move the discussions to GitHub issues and pull requests. They could theoretically move the same communication style from Slack to GitHub, but the long-form body of the issues and pull requests makes it harder to have a synchronous conversation. It makes the initiator of the conversation think more about the message they want to convey, In Slack it’s natural to feel entitled to grab someone’s attention and expect an immediate response.

Another thing that I started doing is using X less. The algorithmic feed is designed to keep me scrolling and scrolling and engaging with the polarizing content. Instead, I’m using Mastodon, where the feed is chronological and feels so much more peaceful. It sometimes feels so boring that I don’t use it at all. It almost feels like an intermediate step to get rid of the addiction. I don’t know if it’s because of the people that I follow there, but I don’t have the feeling that people are trying to grab my attention. Every conversation that I see is meaningful and respectful. X makes me anxious, and Mastodon doesn’t.

I’m also working on caring less about what people think about me. What does it have to do with attention? I started to notice that I sometimes did work to get the approval of others. I liked getting that attention. I think it’s an X/Twitter-induced behavior because it keeps me engaged and active on the platform. I still like sharing the things that I learn and think about, hence why I’m writing this blog post here. But similar to asynchronous communication over Slack, I’m trying to use more this website over X or Mastodon. Not only does writing here relax me, but makes me the owner of the content. I’m getting a bit fed up with all the companies using AI to ruin the content humanity has been generating for years. Do you like the content here? Sweet, there’s an RSS feed for you to subscribe to. Do you want to engage in a conversation? Just send me an email. F*ck the algorithms and enshittification of the Internet.

It’s time to gain the attention back and have a more meaningful and calmed relationship with myself and others on the Internet.