With all of the final papers, presentations, and exams that I have coming up in these next few weeks, staring at a blank screen for twenty minutes seemed like such a waste of time. But, like with every odd thing I've ever been asked to do for a college course, I figured that there was some greater point to it. I chose to stare at my laptop screen because I knew that if I tried this with my phone, I wouldn't be able to keep it a blank screen. And the TV in my house is in the living room, the hub of my family's activity, so I would be way too prone to distraction there. So I shut myself in my bedroom, sat at my desk, set a timer, and stared at my blank laptop screen.
Within the first three minutes, I was itching to turn it on and work on one of the four papers that I have due by next week. I was like "Why do I have to do this?" And then two minutes later my overdramatic subconscious was in full meltdown mode like "whywhywhyWHYWHYWHY." I was trying really hard to stay focused on the blank screen, but it's hard to focus on nothing.
And that's when I got it.
Most of the time when I'm staring at a screen in my day-to-day life, whether I'm watching FRIENDS reruns or scrolling aimlessly through Instagram... I'm focused on nothing. None of it is actually necessary or important. I was sitting here going "Why am I staring at this screen when I have so many other things that I should be doing?" And that's kind of hypocritical, since without this assignment, I would probably have been staring at the screen anyway. It just would have had something mindlessly entertaining on it.
This assignment really made me think about how we all spend our time. While we might get a few laughs or a sometimes much needed distraction from our screens-- TVs, computers, phones-- much of what we're doing on them means nothing at all. It's as useful as staring at a blank screen.
Not get all deep and philosophical here (but I'm gonna): as humans we don't get a lot of time. We are all limited edition, limited time only. The only time we have is the time that we're lucky enough to be given-- by God, by the universe, by whatever you believe has the power to give you anything in this life. It seems such a shame to waste it on something that won't make any difference in the end.
Coming away from this (even though I only lasted 18 minutes), I'll be thinking about how to budget my time better. I won't be giving up Instagram (or my Bachelor Monday tradition), because everyone needs a mindless distraction from time to time. But we have so many available to us, so I think it's important to choose your distractions wisely and moderately. Because at the end of your life, it really, really won't matter how many times you Netflix-binged yourself into a coma, or how many likes you accumulated on your selfies, or how many levels you beat in your favorite video game. There are a lot of things that will matter.
Most of them don't involve a screen.
Good for you! I think I just stayed in the annoyed zone haha
ReplyDeleteWell said. Glad you found meaning in the assignment! I wait all semester every semester to assign this and read these reflections. An odd thing is happening though that more and more of daily life is moving onto screens and through screens. This activity, over the years, has produced more extreme responses in people and more anxiety over how they spend their time. But is has also produced greater epiphanies because of the contradiction. The assignment was developed (not by me) before smart phones sometime in the 90s.
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