Anxiety is prevalent and we cannot deny that. Almost every aspect of our life today has an aspect of anxiety, whether it comes from technology or something else. Because we are constantly “on call” through text, email and social media, we are unable to concentrate fully on one task. I am sure you have noticed that. Our ability to concentrate is constantly fractured. Why? Because we feel obligated to respond to crises in distant locations, maintain our profile on social media, and respond to emails at all times.
The problem is that this constant stimulation from multiple news sources has created a feeling of helplessness; the more we consume, the less in control we are over our mind. While feeling overwhelmed is nothing new, it has been felt for two thousand years. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who was a slave and eventually became successful, knew all about feeling overwhelmed by outside forces. He believed that if we attach our well-being to things that are not in our control, we will suffer in many different ways.
When we allow a news alert to disrupt our morning or allow an email to cause us to change our mood, we are consciously choosing to give away our power to that situation. And we do not want that…
The Stoics were not hermits, they were active members of their community, including senators, emperors and other influential people. They were concerned with their internal state of being at all times BUT they created a clear distinction between what was in their control and what was outside of it.
So, if we try to apply Epictetus’s concept of control to today’s world of information overload, it would mean that we need to focus less on trying to control what we see and hear, and more on how to effectively regulate how we see and hear it. We cannot control the news cycle, the ever-present corporate culture, or the way algorithms are designed to capture our attention; however, we do have control over where we are physically located, the way we fit our devices into our daily lives and the choices we make in our immediate vicinity.
