Focus or Tunnel Vision?

When first going online, I wanted to make sure I knew more about what was happening than anyone else. This meant ready more news sources, going through the paper, reading news online, and even keeping CNN Headline News on in the background.

Before FOMO was abbreviated, I was experiencing it. Soon, I kept a ticker on my screen because I wanted to catch anything new that was breaking. However, I soon learned that the torrent was much bigger than me. There were not enough hours in the day to capture all the news. My sleep suffered as I stayed up to 2 or 3 AM on Saturday nights reading JPost while listening to Galgalatz.

I’m not sure what I would have done if Facebook, Instagram, and other social media were around when I was in high school. I’d probably suffer even more. There is just way too much content to consume.

Now, I consume very little. I use Feed Eradicator on my Facebook to block my feed, Twitter is only used for searching, on the rare bored occasion, I’ll log into Instagram. Am I missing out? Probably. Is it making me less happy. Probably not.

Now, my media consumption is mostly certain YouTube channels or a limited number of regular shows, or certain websites or newsletters. The result is that maybe I’m becoming tunnel visioned. My only calculated exposure to new things is through Spotify’s Discover Weekly music channel.

However, being “tunnel visioned” is also being focused and at least choosing what I consume helps me feel that I’m being less manipulated.