Have you ever caught yourself thinking: I just wish my head would stop for a while? Yes, this has been increasingly reported by different people, this desire to simply look at the sky and silence worries, anxieties, fears, reflections and everything else that makes our mind work incessantly.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it is impossible to interrupt our streams of thoughts, but we can help you with two things: the first is to show that you are not alone in this and the second is to try to help you understand why this is happening to so many people out there. . Reflects!
tiredness society
Overcharge. Productivity. Positivity. Are these expressions you've been hearing around or thinking about recently? According to the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, these are symptoms of the so-called society of tiredness, a term he created.
According to him, this tired society is characterized by a permanent feeling of exhaustion that stems from the fact that our current society has normalized an excessive demand for productivity, which requires us to always deliver more and better - all this masked by a positivity. .
It's a nice summary of social networks, isn't it? This environment in which we need to deal with so much information and novelty, and in which we are asked to produce as well — and watch the series of the moment, see the current trend, follow the BBB and the memes of the week —, all of this posting smiling selfies in a nice place on the weekend.
Infotoxication: what is it?
Recently, this term started to circulate in some discussions about the way we are behaving on the internet. Because we are increasingly dependent on screens (smartphones, computers, TVs, etc.), listening to audio and watching accelerated videos, saving links, images and podcasts to consume later, and so on.
The truth is it is humanly impossible for us to be able to handle the immense and absurd amount of information that is being produced: messages, videos, photos, audios, movies, series, books, podcasts, news… They just don't fit in 24 hours.
According to a survey by Consumoteca published in 2021, 78% of Spanish people stated that they feel unable to assimilate all the content they consume daily. And that's what we call infotoxication: we consume too much, we can't process it - and the tiredness is twofold: not being able to handle it and feeling guilty for not being able to handle it.
feeling of incapacity
What remains, at the end of the day, is a feeling of inability. Everyone seems to be able to follow the news, watch the series that premiered this week, listen to the podcast of the moment, take a 2 hour walk, bake a cake, read 2 books a week and so on… except you, right? Well, a lot of people have felt that.
And, as explained earlier, this comes with a sense of guilt as well, as if we were to blame, for being incapable of not being able to consume the excess information that is circulating.
The infantilization of networks
In addition, many people over the age of 30 have reported another type of discomfort: more and more, social networks are dominated and carried out by young people talking about young people's topics with a young language.
Doesn't it seem absurd that people who are 30 or 35 years old are calling themselves "old"? All of this is an effect of what they are calling the infantilization of entertainment: most famous tiktokers are teenagers, the shows about teenagers are very successful, even actors and actresses over 25 seem to be 16 or 17…
And that causes exhaustion, guilt, fatigue. Because, unlike the pre-internet world, when we circulated wherever we wanted and only when we wanted to, the “visits” we make to social networks are daily, often several times an hour, so if something there causes harm, this malaise is literally daily.
It does not stop there…
If the problems were just these, things wouldn't be as serious as they are, but we could pile up problems and more problems that only make our minds race. Additionally, we have, of course, our personal problems: relationships, family, friends, work, college, study, dreams and plans, bills and bills…
In addition, the pandemic and the uncertainty about the future it has brought, the climate apocalypse we are living in, a political, economic and social crisis that never seems to end and that no one remembers when it started, the demands demanding jobs in times of toxic LinkedIn positivity…
The mental load becomes heavy, exhausting.
So, what to do?
There's no magic formula, no cake recipe. Human beings have never been so exposed to information and as charged as they are today. That's why nobody really knows what to do… What you can do is analyze yourself and follow some tips we've prepared.
1 – Limit your use of social media
Social networks are great villains when we think about the acceleration of thought, because they incessantly expose us to information. If you scroll the feed forever, it will! So rethink the way you are using networks and be more responsible in that use.
2 - Don't stop!
Low amount of sleep is largely responsible for poor reasoning ability, information processing and the feeling of mental fatigue. So prioritize your sleep, set sleep and wake up times and don't think it's normal to just not sleep a night or sleep less than you should.
3 – Find environments with distracting activities
Sports, hobbies, crafts, yoga, meditation… Finally, find activities or environments and spaces that you can be in that will be a distraction rather than a charge for productivity. These activities need to be real rests, like therapy.
4 – Surround yourself with people like you
Yes, a lot of people are feeling tired like you, so try to be around these people instead of people who send 1001 links a day and recommend 2 movies, 4 books and 6 podcasts, all while sending the meme of the moment. If it's too much for you, it's okay to look for companies more aligned with who you are.
5 – Less charge!
Yeah, talking is easy, but you need to charge yourself less. Stop and think about all the things you can handle when you start to beat yourself up over all the things you can't. You will realize that you have managed to do much more than what you have left undone. Take it easy with you.
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Anyway, many people are suffering from this current accelerated thinking syndrome, so it's not just you! Know that this is not your fault and that it is a sign of the times we are living in. But keep trying to find ways to get around this and feel less charged for productivity and processing so much information.
