Distractions: the Good, the Bad, and the Evil

You ever wonder why it’s so easy for you to lose focus on a really important task sometimes? You might even lose focus to the point that by the time you’re able to regain focus you’ve lost your train of thought and have forgotten the exact details you were focused on to begin with. You may have been the victim of a distraction that was intentional or unintentional. Whatever the case may be, it is fair to say that distractions are often unavoidable facets of life even with the meticulously focused individuals. Seeing that these annoyances are integral parts of our lives it is best to understand how they work for us and how they work against us.

The Good

“I know that it sounds counterintuitive, but there are plenty of instances where distractions are beneficial to us in achieving our ultimate goals, both short term and long term. And for the record, this is “the Good” portion of the article. Now, distractions are beneficial in at least three key ways: 1) sharpening your focus and mental fortitude, 2) expanding your creativity, and 3) entertainment.

On the surface, using distractions as tools to actually keep your mind focused is an apparent positive factor that millions of people use everyday. However, there are some non-apparent positives that go way beneath the surface. One is that distractions can train your brain to receive multiple pieces of information at once yet decipher what is necessary for you then discard the rest for the time being. For instance, suppose you are watching a news report about job creation to battle a rising unemployment rate. And within that report there are only one or two critical factors (among many reasons) that tell the whole story. With the distractions  in the above example, the brain is challenged to receive a string of information on job creation’s effect on unemployment, analyze it, and determine if the issue is adequately being addressed.

‘Creativity expansion’ is a positive attribute that is best displayed with children. A particularly common example of this is ‘daydreaming’. Daydreaming is often a distraction from the mundane daily routines. Coincidentally, those are often ideal times to empty your mind and allow a stream of consciousness that can produce the solutions you had been looking for all along. Have you ever been in a weekly board meeting when you suddenly drift into a much-needed inadvertent break daydreaming about faraway planets that would fit nicely in that extraterrestrial sci-fi novel you’ve been writing during your free time? Or how about that new sculpture idea you got from daydreaming while watching clouds float by outside the window of your physics class? The point is that inspirations for creativity come in all forms, but allowing distractions (such as daydreams) to open your mind increases the possibilities for amazing results.

The desire to be entertained is something that almost anyone can relate to. Whether that is going to watch a musical, joking around with friends, or having a wild imagination, entertainment is often a great distraction from the more tedious or serious parts of life. Think of a distraction like going to a fun baseball game. There you not only have the excitement of the game but also the energy of the crowd, the music playing in the background, the smell of delicious foods, and great company to enjoy it all with. The intrinsic rewards of such entertainment have not only psychological benefits (such as relieving stress or combating loneliness by connecting with a community) but also physical benefits from activities such as walking or even laughing/cheering.

The Bad

With every good side there’s a bad side, and there are plenty of bad facets of distractions to choose from. For now I’ll only focus on the two major disadvantages, loss of productivity and increase in mishaps.

Productivity is one of the main sources of pride for hard-working individuals out there. And that is not only applicable to the workplace but also leisure activities like hobbies or exercising. Unfortunately, among the main adversaries of productivity are ‘distractions’. Have you ever been busy at work where you have to perform some research on the internet? Needless to say, the internet contains a whole universe of distractions just waiting to capture your attention and lead you astray for an indefinite amount of time. And suppose you inadvertently slip into one of those internet rabbit holes, and before you know it 10, 20, 30, or 40 minutes have passed before you snap back to your senses and get back to work. The saddest part about the whole endeavor is that it was all for your personal quest to expand your knowledge of useless information that will never benefit you (unless the topic happens to come up while you’re a contestant on Jeopardy).

As sad as the above scenario is the next one is worse and even more dangerous. Let’s say you’re driving to go pick someone up for a first date, and you’re anxious about what the night has in store. As you run possible scenarios of how the date could go through your mind you inadvertently hit a pedestrian walking in the crosswalk while making an ill-advised right turn (or left turn in Great Britain and its territories). Had you only been focused on the task at hand (safely getting to your date) you wouldn’t be ending the night facing a ‘reckless driving’ charge. Mishaps occur all the time. Their unavoidable. But they happen with much greater frequency and severity when we are distracted. This is especially true in everyday occurrences that are potential ‘life or death’ situations.

The Evil

Now here we come to the crux of this article. Some of what I’m about to delve into could potentially venture into conspiracy theory territory. But bare with me because, in all seriousness, it’s based in observable reality. 

First, The Matrix to some degree is real. Not in the literal sense, but definitely in the philosophical sense. In that film it focused on a world designed to be one huge distraction from the horrific reality that consumed all of humanity. Sure, the concept was exaggerated for entertainment purposes, but basic idea of distractions being used as the tool of choice in the film to keep the population subdued mirrors real life with horrifying accuracy. Just to highlight an example that illustrates this point, think of this: for several years in the midst of the height of pop culture distractions (holiday season) the U.S. government has chosen to release news that the Pentagon has failed its audit. This has happened six years in a row as of 2023 resulting in an estimated 62% of the military’s $4B budget being unaccounted for. Yet in all of these years of the Pentagon’s failed audits there has hardly been any strong public outcry, particularly when the President and Congress have consistently increased the military budget each year. Can you guess why?

Second, distractions have been used for centuries to keep the population from realizing how much the elite and powerful get away with. In modern times it has gotten to the point where the average person’s attention span can almost be measured in nanoseconds. With all the technology, information, and entertainment options we have literally at our fingertips the task of focusing on the issues that really matters becomes much harder. But this is actually by design. At least in most of the industrialized world, there is an intentional effort to over-saturate society with these distractions to allow certain unpopular agendas to be carried out with minimal pushback. Wars, destabilizing governments, corporate socialism, concentration of wealth, hegemony, exploitation of people and resources, etc. All of these vile acts and so many more would be exponentially harder to execute with a populace that wasn’t distracted and instead was united and laser-focused on opposing them by any means necessary. 

The Conclusion 

At the end of the day, everyone of us has autonomy to do what we will with distractions. They can be used to your benefit or detriment. The choice is yours. Take care, everybody.