©2022 Jeff Lung
Human beings did not evolve to live in the 21st century. Our instincts are to be among the wild. To hunt. To forage. To migrate. We were meant to be one with our surroundings.
I don’t think Mother Nature found it necessary that we know the opinions of a million strangers simply by looking at the glowing box in our hands. Dunbar’s Number, the idea that human beings can only process and maintain approximately 150 relationships, has no room to breathe when we have the entire world at our fingertips, all of the time.
And while this makes sense once someone points it out, most of us never think about it. We just fall in line with the trends of a rapidly changing culture. We create psychosis and rules in our minds for living that are often detrimental to our overall well being.
Sometimes I have to stop my own bizarre inner monologues from obsessing over silly things like how far is my reach on Instagram. I have to stop and ask myself: would my 94-year old grandmother give two shits about how many followers I have? Does it have any bearing at all on who I am as a person? Does any of it matter?
The argument counters: well, you need the followers so you can market your work to more people and have more customers. And while there is no question that the digital world offers new markets for businesses and allows them to blow up in ways that were never before possible, the old fashioned way of marketing to your local community and to the people you already know (especially those in your Dunbar Number) has been a successful strategy for a very long time. In fact, I’d argue that it’s probably best to start here and then if you do eventually accumulate a larger following, then marketing to them is simply a bonus.
So the next time you find yourself scrolling along, mesmerized by the immense volume of unique, talented and spectacular human beings out there all promoting their best and brightest, remember that our brains and our emotions weren’t built for processing all of that. Comparing yourself to others and forming an opinion of yourself solely based on the exploits of the masses isn’t healthy nor is it productive.
To aid in this I limit my time on social media to 10 minute increments a couple times a day. I make sure I break a sweat every day. And I try to be outside as much as possible.
Do you have any hacks for dealing with information overload? Tell me in the comments!