The Cognitive Dissonance

I am in a very complex mix created from my own hands. This is the state of cognitive dissonance. I am running YouTube channels in English and Hindi languages with the theme of Offline Therapy. I am also curating the blog with the same theme.

I have come to a point where I feel a need for a digital detoxification therapy for myself. Ironically Offline Therapy concept is all about making ourselves aware about bad effects of social media and digital technology. In my posts I talk about being offline is a therapy on its own. But, these days I am in a constant process of thinking. I am always thoughtful. I am always in a brainstorming session within myself. I always think about strategies to make my blog and YouTube channel popular. I always find myself in a quest for a better search engine optimization technique.

 I wrote this article first on a notepad when I had to pull myself away from my laptop screen. When I was writing my thoughts on the notebook; one portion of my mind thought that this piece of self-talk with pen and paper could also be a good post on the internet. And here it is.   

Every time, I feel there are multiple ideas which converge into these thought processes. These thoughts range from next blog or video post to future road maps when my online venture will become successful. Even when I was writing the manuscript of this post, I was amid multiple thoughts being converged into my mind.

It is amazing how our brains move from one thought to another. The agility of our minds is commendable. We contain so many wonderful ideas. They come and go. However, some of them remain with us to shape our lives.

I must apply efforts to pull myself back from so many thoughts. Let’s come back to the complex mix of internet world I am into. Every time I upload a video on YouTube or do a blog post, I put efforts to promote it to reach a wider audience. There is also the hidden agenda to make money in the process. 

This quest to reach out to a wider audience landed me on new to me social platforms like Reddit, Pinterest among others. Obviously, I plan to approach these platforms with their unique strategies. And this is my biggest irony. My internet venture has the core objective to make more people realize that being offline and disconnected from digital world is a therapy on its own. ‘Brain Hacks’, ‘Digital Detox’, ‘Dopamine Fast’, ‘Smartphone Addictions’, ‘Social Media Addiction’, ‘E-Commerce and instant gratifications’, ‘Digital Well being’ are the keywords and tags which are in synonym with my online venture.

I am always online. Even though I am offline, I am present on all those platforms. There is a sleeplessness in my mind. Physically, I look drowsy; but I couldn’t sleep. My mind is hyperactive most of the time.

When I was offline and writing this page on a paper; my mind was travelling (read trapped) in the whirlpool of the digital sphere. I was streaming in the data of all sorts in my mind. Text, voice, visuals and videos drive me. Online medium is powerful. It has influence into our minds even though you are offline. 

We have entered an era of digital slavery. Very few of us realize this. The resistance to this slavery is trapped in the paradox. Because, digital is the effective way to reach mass audience. But, the underlying content is anti-thesis of the medium to which it must rely on.

The complex mix I am stuck right now is the quick sand of statistics. I frequently check the YouTube dashboard multiple times a day to track performances of my videos. With this continuous tracking of statistics of my contents I feel like under the influence of a dopamine overdose inside my brain.

Also, there are consequences of prolonged exposure to the screen of smartphone and the laptop. Any ergonomic measure taken for the digital well being can not compensate the benefits of remaining disconnected or offline. Effects on eyes and neck is very much evident to me. This is due to the negligence of incorrect postures we all get into while staring at these screens. We ignore the inconvenience caused to our body parts.    

Thanks, if you have really read this post till here. This post has come directly from my heart. I would be happy to discuss this phenomenon further with your experiences, suggestions in the comment section.

The restlessness of my mind came to a halt last night when I wrote the first version of this post with pen and paper. I had a sound sleep afterwards.  Next evening, I typed the online version of this post.

Does this mean that we have learn so many things and time has come to unlearn some of them to get a moment of peace?

‘Offline Therapy’ is a journey just begun. I foresee milestones of learning and insights awaiting.    

This content was also posted on reddit where I received a very interesting comment (which also made me to change the subject of this post)

Cognitive Dissonance - online advice for offline therapy through journal writing to process mental obstacles.


Share this blog on Twitter
Tweet
Let's talk on Twitter (My personal Handle)
Tweet to @rzzv