Paying Attention to What Matters Most

Nibbling potato chips into the shapes of states is apparently now a thing. Does that cause you to take pause?

Nah. That was yesterday. Today it’s frozen tomato sandwiches. Tomorrow it could be a national recall on Mrs. Willy’s Famous Heat ‘n’ Eat Hamburger Gravy on Mashed Potatoes. If that’s not enough for you, you can watch videos on YouTube of people cleaning rugs. Always satisfying.

These, of course, are diversions from whatever else is going on. People are burned out on tech, weather, politics and the price of everything. So perhaps we need diversions these days. They can be a quick sideshow in an otherwise ordinary day. There are now more than enough of them to fill each day.

We spend too much time on our devices. I know I do. Remember when these devices were hyped as great timesavers? Well, they certainly can be. But so much of daily life seems to be centered on always being connected that they have become a necessary accessory.

Have you had that moment when you go shopping and realize you forgot to bring your phone? It had your shopping list, coupons and the credit cards on it. Now you can’t even call home to make sure it’s there. You might consider that whenever you think about getting off the grid.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

In light of this, should we be grateful for videos and apps that keep thrilling us with the bizarre or are they detaining us from paying attention to more important concerns? There seems to be a pall over everything today. Bad news. Bad weather. Politics gone awry. Losing sleep wondering what’s next. We just want to avoid all of it. Maybe we’re all just going mad.

There are some diversions which can help. For example, to help keep you safe online, AARP is offering a free video on how to recognize an artificial intelligence (AI) image. I guess so you can be sure that the poster of Abe Lincoln telling you who to vote for is not an AI-generated deep fake.

Surprisingly, AARP also offers a video called “How to Create Stunning Images with AI.” Really. They have many security videos on how to recognize scams. Remember when most of what AARP offered was recipes and health tips?

This is all good. The more you know, the better. Right? But I wonder, are people really taking the time to be smarter on the internet? It’s a lot easier to keep watching cat videos.

When you pay more attention to your devices you risk losing contact with your family and friends. You’ve probably seen photos of families enjoying Thanksgiving dinner, each with a fork in one hand and a phone in the other. It’s funny and sad at the same time.

Services of Convenience

I log a lot of screen time each week doing online interactions with all my “services.” Banking, shopping, utilities. Lots of stuff that used to come in the mail. They’re quick to invite you to set up autopay and go paperless for your convenience and, even more so, theirs.

Anyone my age likely has a health portal now. Very useful and getting better. I could view X-rays of my new knee within minutes. However, their many online questionnaires and having to check in on a kiosk at the medical center are still annoying. But we’ll adjust to it eventually as we have for everything else.

Online services come with security worries and it all boils down to how much you trust yourself to be careful. Seriously. You need to pay attention. Ask questions.

And now more than ever we need to monitor the events of our country and the world. A lot of what affects us directly is changing very quickly. If you haven’t been paying attention, now might be a good time to start even if it means spending less time on Facebook, X or TikTok. Every one of us needs to follow the news every day. And in more detail than the evening TV news or this newspaper can provide. Anything less is not enough anymore.

You need to pay attention to what’s changing and how it might affect you. You need to read and view news from a variety of sources so you can make informed decisions. Yes, it can be painful. But wouldn’t you want to know what’s going on even if nothing changes for you?

Most of us just want to be assured that we’ll see tomorrow. The Doomsday Clock just changed to 89 seconds from midnight. We’re one second closer than last year to the end of everything. If you don’t know what this means, look it up.

If all of this is just too much, you can go back to watching videos of pickup trucks rolling down hills and crashing into trees. Hilarious stuff.

The choice is yours.