Useless pursuits versus the basics

To doomscroll or to cook for my family – that is the question

We are told that Gen Z spends a lot of time doomscrolling. And bed rotting. They fritter away the day. But even those of us older folk who are not actively frittering, are nonetheless susceptible to being distracted and spending our time on useless pursuits.

In this modern era, the main source of frittering and distraction is surely the internet. We find ourselves drawn to foolish content—‘drivel’ if you will—that is just entertaining enough to keep us watching and prevent us from getting out of our chair. And if we show the slightest bit of interest in any particular area – weird faces of celebrities who’ve had plastic surgery for example – our feed becomes flooded with that one thing. Before we know it, we have an all-consuming interest in how to blow-dry our hair to give it more volume. It’s the ultimate procrastination tool.

To move away from the drivel, and focus on more important issues, viz. world affairs, seems more justifiable. “I’m keeping up with the news,” we tell ourselves, “and being a concerned global citizen.” Accordingly, we become outraged by the latest act of war, saddened by horrific crimes, and worried about our apparently-ailing Earth. Of course these are understandable reactions, but the question is: why have we come to be focused to such a degree on these matters in the first place? Is it perhaps because we are hand-fed them and told to be concerned about them? For while many of them are legitimate causes, we are at the same time detrimentally swept up in the myriad petty interests of this secularised world.

Though as far back as Plato we have been told to take an interest in politics, to allow such concerns to take up the bulk of our time here on Earth seems foolish; seems even a simple-minded way to live, undiscerning of what we personally consider important and how we want to live.  It indicates that we are happy to be placed on the same page as everybody else. We’ll just go with the flow. But, as they say, even dead fish can do that. The events of the day come to us packaged as ‘truth’ through various media, but they can prevent us from spending time ascertaining the bigger truth about who we are and why we’re here. To use another idiom, we can’t see the forest for the trees.

It seems so simple: focus on what’s important in life. And most of what we spend our time on, particularly online, is surely not.

I have a list I try to adhere to each day:

walk

pray

clean

read

write

cook

be generous with family.

Most days I don’t achieve all the items. But if I can stick to this generally, I figure it’s a modest, simple life that will serve me well. It’s not that impressive, I guess, to tick off cooking each day, but it is a good reminder that simple, necessary activities done with love are important. As St. John of the Cross said, in the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.