The following excerpt is written by my good friend, George. George was a high school dropout who was caught up in drug and alcohol addictions for over a decade. At 30, he had enough – he completely abstained from all substance abuse, and started the first of many businesses. Now at 35, he’s financially free. Having a lengthy experience with addiction problems, he has some extreme advice for handling our daily addictions.
A simple foresight into the future, hold on to your reality because it will get real murky.
I am writing this in early 2011, but perhaps this article will be more interesting 5 years from now. But here is what is going to happen in the next few years. The perfect storm is brewing with technology as a hole, and Hollywood having access to cheaper technology. Technology-infused culture will fog up our reality. You may say big deal, so what? Well, monkey see monkey do.
The true test for people in the future is to remain grounded in reality and even that discussion will get clouded with the main stream media BS. The symptoms are all there, everyone is starting to get a little narcotic over things that don’t really matter: checking Facebook profiles 3 times a day, YouTube videos that entertain you for hours (or we think so) only to walk away feeling like you just flushed 5 hours of your life down the toilet. Video games with virtual reality that can eat your mind and time. Cable shows and mini-series that are so addictive that even I threw in the towel a few years ago.
Here are a few statistics to chew on:
1. 28 hours per week of TV (approximately 30% of your waking life)
2. 15 hours per week of Internet (15% of your life and most people have TV and internet…)
3. 12-24.5 hours playing video games per week.
The power of this black hole is simply “everyone seems to be doing it”, no one wants to be left out. We have an evolution-based fear – “I don’t want the group to abandon me”. Young people are the most vulnerable.
The solution that even I am having trouble with is this – do what has worked in the past 5000 years and be suspicious of the new.
- Get rid of your TV, they’re time killers and with endless amount of money and resources at their disposal you need to admit to yourself that they are smarter then you. I am not talking about their shows, those could not be more stupid and unrealistic.
- Remove any if not all games and useless apps from you phone.
- Get rid of your video games (If you are using it only 1-2 hours a week, my hat is off to you, I can’t do it).
- Have one computer in your life that you never use for entertainment (unless you have a healthy balance now)
- Read books. Everyone needs to turn off and escape and while you are doing this, you can grow your imagination, vocabulary and keep your mind sharp. I have a Kindle because all I can do with it is read; if I have an iPad there is too much distraction on it.
- The thing that makes people the happiest has not changed in 5000 years, it’s simple and for the most part free…..IT’S THE FRIENDSHIP OF OTHER PEOPLE. Get out of your house and mingle.
In conclusion, we need to live our lives like we are writing a novel, every chapter can be pre-written and carried out. We have it all yet we are missing the core essence of it.
Technology should only be used as tools to help us grow, not take away that growth.
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