Should we become our own algorithms?
It's hard to avoid cliches when talking about social media. Their built-in algorithms grab our attention and increase our worries. They were made to keep us coming back. Psychologist Anna Lembke compares the effect of social media apps to the effect of heroin, meth, or alcohol. And like any addiction, to overcome it, we need to reset how our brain's reward system works 1.
Image Source: Europeana Collection on Unsplash
But what if we take charge by becoming our own algorithms—setting our own rules for absorbing information and interacting online? Polish blogger Marcin Mosac presents a guideline to help stop doomscrolling:
- Choose movies over TV shows.
- Avoid watching the news (read analytical articles instead).
- Create a box for your phone (and leave it there while being at home).
- Meditate.
- Play video games.
- Read books.
- Take a break.
Some of those points may sound questionable, and others are a matter of taste. But I agree with the conclusion Marcin Mosac comes to: the ability to focus will become exceptional in the near future, and—to make it through—we need to train our mind.
How I reclaimed my attention with MAVKA
One year ago, I wrote MAVKA—a Python script that scrapes recent articles from selected websites and adds them to my Notion database. It runs weekly via GitHub Actions and gives me something new to read without opening social media or visiting the original websites.
After a year, MAVKA has collected 102 articles. I've read 27 of them; the remaining entries are tagged as new, to read, or bookmark. Instead of relying on notifications, I built a habit of checking my Notion regularly. Whenever I do, I rarely leave without reading something.
MAVKA reduces my distraction and FOMO, mainly because of the sources I follow: Re/visions (which also has an English edition) and Kontur, two Ukrainian publications focused on philosophy and culture. Their articles explore complex topics and reward slow reading. When I mark one as read, I feel inspired and connected—and I want to keep reading.
If you're curious, Mavka is a mythical creature in Ukrainian folklore and the main character of The Forest Song (Lisova Pisnya, 1912), a play by Lesya Ukrainka. I won't spoil the story, but Mavka belongs to nature and lives in harmony with it. Perhaps harmony was the key I was looking for while working on my script. And now the script helps me focus on what truly deserves my attention.
Addictive potential of social media, explained By Bruce Goldman, source: Stanford Medicine↩