Hey!
Welcome to the second issue of RE:MIND. A new kind of newsletter that isn’t news or a letter, but more like a big serving of sanity in a world full of crazy things like rollable smartphones, deep-fake videos, and an AI pets called Moflin.
In this issue, we’re talking about how to know what’s important in life, the recent Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, and a game that may bring you to tears.
(If you’re wondering why you’re getting this email, it’s likely because you follow me on medium @joehuntmindfulness. RE:MIND is my new newsletter that aims to make the modern world, and your inbox, a little less of a chaotic and stressful place).
How to Know What’s Important In Life
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to know what’s important in life.
When you don’t know what’s important in life, then it’s easier than ever today to spend it distracted or carried away by someone else’s idea of what’s important and whiling away your time doing things that don’t matter.
It’s not like there’s any shortage of ideas about what you should find important. Everywhere you turn, there’s some company or book or guru or newsletter (HI) telling you what’s most important or what should be most important to you.
That’s basically what the media is. News websites and networks like Facebook and Instagram are designed to determine what’s important for you.
So you don’t have to.
Some media sites are based on factors like what’s happening in the world, their political agendas, shock value, and your preferences.
Others are based on complex algorithms, your viewing habits, what other people think, who you’re connected to, cute value, instant outrage value, and now pretty much anything that will keep you scrolling.
However they do it, and however insidious or creepy their motives, the media has become THE guide to what’s important in the world. And, as an extension, what should be important in your life.
To me, the main problem with the modern news and social media isn’t that it’s driven by the underlying motive of gobbling up as much of your attention as possible. Although that is a problem, as we’ll get into next.
The main problem is that when I use these tools on a regular basis, I come to lose sight of what’s important to me.
Suddenly a conversation with my gran is less important than checking what’s new in the sixteen WhatsApp groups I’m in. Suddenly finishing a piece of writing for my newsletter — hold on a sec — is less important than checking what new faces — ooo she looks nice — are on Tinder. Suddenly everything in the entire world is less important than keeping up to date with the latest headlines and tracking the COVID death toll, case by case.
In the digital age, when you don’t know what’s important to you, you don’t sit there twiddling your thumbs until you finally get the urge to go out and try something.
What’s important is shoved down your throat every few minutes. And as a side effect, what you find important is suddenly relegated to the notch of not as important.
I think one of the most important skills of the 21st century will be to be able to see what is most important, and to act on it without being deterred or distracted.
To follow through on what you find important takes consciously stepping outside of the external measurements of value that modern society revolves around.
Money. Status. Opinions. Approval. Validation. Appearance. Followers. Money. Achievements. Accolades. Intelligence. Money. Status. Money. Approval. Money. Appearance. Money. Money. Money.
External measures of value are based on fleeting, uncontrollable, unreliable, and ultimately unfulfilling factors.
Internal measures, on the other hand, are based on reliable, controllable, and fulfilling factors. This is because they come from within — from your core values and what you believe in. Acting on your core values have no other purpose outside of themselves. The point isn’t to act on them for a reason like to achieve fame of notoriety. You do it because you have to.
You do it to live them.
When you know your internal measures of value, it’s much easier to not be sidetracked or distracted by what isn’t important in life because you can see what is.
But how do you know what your internal measures of value are? And more importantly, how do you act on them? Make sure to check in for the next issue.
The Social Dilemma
My cousin sent me a message and said I need to watch the Social Dilemma ASAP. I asked him why, he said because it will make me want to delete all my social media accounts. I said great. And watched it immediately.
Like most people, I knew something wasn’t right with social media and the way I use it. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. So I continued to suckle on the teet of social media as if I was a newborn baby who gobbles up anything put in front of them, simply because nobody told them otherwise.
So when I watched it, I was pleased to finally have a good enough reason to now delete all my accounts (apart from email, of course).
But the reason I’m deleting them isn't because of what you may think. It isn’t because they’re so terrible for us and that they’re designed to tap into deep-seated evolutionary and biological drives. It isn’t because the way the companies use our data is so manipulative that it can predict what we’re most likely to do or what we’re most likely to want in the next moment. It’s not because it’s evil and addictive and should be banned forever.
It’s because I realized the companies that created social media platforms have designed tools that actually solve many problems.
No duh, right? This is what companies do. They find a problem. Then go about making the best possible solution. Then people buy that solution, and voila, problem solved.
As you can see, though. Things haven’t quite worked out the way they intended.
In a way, a few megacorporations have made products that are so good at what they set out to do, this will be their demise. They’re so good people literally can’t put them down.
But the reason they’re so good isn’t just due to social media being an irresistible offering. I’d like to see Zuckerberg try and sell Facebook to an alien civilization. Nine out of ten would most likely laugh in his face, if they even let him get through his pitch.
The reason they’re so good is that they are perfectly designed to addresses a number of needs in society. They’re designed to solve our isolated, information-hungry, and idle lives. Without helping us become less isolated, information-hungry, and idle. All you have to do is download an app or sign up for an account. Oh, and hand over all your data and your attention — which is fine, because, I mean, you weren’t using them anyway.
Look at that. Now you have 1000 friends. Now you have the approval your mother never gave you. Now you have a way to make your meaningless job and commute livable. And you did it all without actually doing anything.
Calling social media addictive frames us as passive victims who are at the mercy of our biology or of Silicon Valley tech giants, or both. The reality is these companies have made products that work incredibly well. And, because they work incredibly well, we use them.
But here’s the thing. What “well” means for them — because, I mean, they’re for-profit megacorporations run by some of the most money-hungry and business-savvy people on Earth — doesn’t necessarily line up with what “well” means for the person on the street.
No matter what their mission statements say, they don’t bring people closer together or foster community, at least in the way we understand these terms. What they do is offer an alternative to being close with people and building community. An alternative that isn’t all-benevolent like they make it seem. But that is out to harvest our data and attention for their benefit, no matter what the cost to your actual real-life predicament.
That’s not to say it’s not possible to use social media and have a healthy social life. But to think that digital, Silicon-Valley-based alternatives can solve complex physical and systemic problems such as social isolation and the general state of society is downright crackers. All they can do is provide temporary sedatives that may soothe things for a while, but that actually leaves the underlying issues untouched and festering.
So, who’s with me? Reply to this message saying which accounts you’re going to delete. I’m starting with Twitter.
Maybe The Saddest Video Game Ever
I’ll keep this short as not everyone has a games console. But I perhaps played the saddest video game ever made this week.
It was so sad that at times it wasn’t even enjoyable. But that’s what kept me playing. It challenged my notion of what games are and what they can be. The game, Arise (available on PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows) engages you emotionally like a movie or a play. But you’re also taking an active part in it and exploring the landscape and solving little puzzles, so it also gets you thinking.
Although I went into it looking for something mildly sedative to while away the time, I found myself on a journey through one man’s life — from youth, marriage, and birth, right through to tragedy, aging, and death. The creepy shadowy figures that come out in the darkness and disappear when brought into the light were particularly haunting.
If you can’t play it, I recommend checking out the soundtrack.
Cat sponsor of the week
This week’s issue is sponsored by my sister’s cat Mog, who, to be fair, actually wrote most of MEOWWWWWW it anyway.
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