I’ve been reflecting lately on how much noise there is in my life, how much noise is present in our daily lives. There is, of course, the noise from social media–Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and all of the other platforms out there. There is the noise from the news, which is important to follow. But if we allow ourselves to get too caught up in it, there is a constant cycle, a churning, that is exhausting. We also binge watch shows on Netflix, fill the empty spaces in our lives with music, podcasts…noise.
I’m not saying these things are bad. In fact, they can be very good. But we must let our values and our flourishing dictate the kinds and amounts of noise that we let into our lives. If we don’t, then social media, entertainment media, the news media, and all of the other noise will dictate its values to us.
One problem with this is that we can miss moments in which there is goodness, truth, or beauty, because our minds our distracted by all the noise. But these are the things that make life meaningful, and contribute to our happiness.
All of this makes me wonder whether I should add to the noise with this blog at my website. I write books, articles, and have an ethics blog at Psychology Today. Perhaps that’s enough, but perhaps not. I’m still working through what I want to do. But I’m sure I need to reduce the noise in my own life.
Photo by Plaznge, Flickr.
CCL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
