I was giving TikTok my attention because it was serving me what would retain my attention, and it could do that because it had been designed to perform algorithmic pyrotechnics that were capable of making a half hour pass before I remembered to look away.

I sit at my dining table as the sun rises feeling old, feeling overwhelmed, feeling like everything is speeding up, like in a dream where you are trudging in cement and something sinister is chasing you. I realize every generation thinks the next is “going to hell in a hand basket” as my parent’s generation loved to say. I saw a glimpse of the power of technology when I was a young teenager and my wealthy friend had the game of Pong on her television. Her brother would sit for hours playing that game. It never drew me in but I witnessed the hypnotic affect. I was able to stand firm on not buying Nintendo when my kids were young but caved when they were in high school playing war games in the basement on the computer. I get the surrender, the exhaustion of monitoring content. Reading this, I felt like a steam roller was slowly rolling over my body, starting at my feet, crushing bones, squeezing life essence from me - yes, that dramatic. I really couldn’t wait for the article to end. As I sit here, all I can think of is the quote from Neale Donald Walsch’s book, The Only Thing That Matters - “You will determine the quality of your life by what you pay attention to.”

Bombshell.

Jia knocked this one out of the park.

Required reading for anybody who thinks about the intersection of social media/tech and humanity.