Glass half full, half empty—the wisdom to know the difference
You and I are the brilliant, flawed offspring of evolution.
The ultimate problem solvers, we dominate our world as no other progeny of natural selection we know of has been able to.
We are indeed problem solvers—we have had to be. Equally we are problem creators, with new powers to scale both the good (should we choose to) and the bad.
Humans like me have been alcoholics for centuries. We know how to solve the problem of drinking too much, but not how to solve the problem of addiction to alcohol. We know how to solve the problem of taking too much of a drug, yet we do not know how to solve the problem of addiction to the substances.
Many of us can manage, overcome, or learn to live with addictions, as addicts, as Daily Active Users.
Many of us cannot.
The optimist in me gives humans solid odds in favor of being able to solve the problems of overusing social media, the gambling economy, porn on tap, seductive anthropomorphized AI chatbots, and abuse of screen time in general. Hopefully, we can address this sooner rather than later. So that the time it takes to get ahead of the problem won’t cost us the things that truly matter, such as our friendships, familial bonds, and the democracies that we see under threat around the world.
You and I both know how to solve the problems of the attention economy, but not our addiction to it, because addictions are not, for many, solvable. Some of us are addicts, some of us aren’t. The way to solve social media problems is to delete your social media apps. It’s easy to say for someone who can just do that, but near impossible for someone who can’t. I have met few who have been able to actually do this, even when they want to.
This newsletter is called The Daily Active User because I believe that we are in the middle of an addiction crisis, and at its core lies the attention economy. Not all, but far too many of us are addicted to an economy of attention that utilizes the bleeding edge of computer, behavioral, and psychological science to capture us young and keep us hooked to a screen for as much of our waking life as it is possible to conquer. The pull of these platforms and devices is as powerful as any substance we have distilled, mixed, cooked, consumed, and experienced in various ways up to this point in our evolution.
Glass half full: Enough of us see that there’s a problem and quit their Daily Active Usage, while the true addicts, like me, carry on as best we can as recovering alcoholics, recovering Daily Active Users. We practice strategies to keep us safe and healthy—support groups, understanding friends and families, and tools that keep what addicts us from overcoming our overstretched defenses.
Glass half empty: There are not enough of us who can quit. Too few who take that first and hardest step, which, as anyone in recovery will tell you, is the most challenging. To admit “I have a problem,” to ask for help, and be blessed enough to actually receive it.
Therein lies the bind.
So I ask for serenity. I ask it for you, reading this, and for those you know and love. For all of us who walk this earth, glued to tiny screens, stuck in endless feeds. I ask for the strength to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Love ❤️
amen