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In this episode, Dani takes you down a rabbit hole to discuss boredom, attention spans, the COVID-19 pandemic, social media, and traffic accidents.
For links & recommendations, view full episode notes.
Dani is honest and refreshing in her takes on the world and society. Listen as she explains how she’s come to understand the world through kindness, both towards ourselves and everything else.
[0:00] Hello friends! Welcome to Understanding Kindness, a podcast hosted by me, Dani! I’m someone who approaches life by learning from everyone around me, and I’ve decided to write it all down and talk about it here with you. I’ve learned that in order to create change in this world, we need to understand ourselves and the world around us, all while infusing kindness into everything we do. If I can do it, you can do it, and we can do it together. Welcome to Understanding Kindness.
[0:30] Well hello, friends! I want to tell you up front that I decided to record this episode on July 4th, which, of course, is not a great idea. I now realize that, uh, so I just wanna give you a little warning that there may be random sounds. There are a lot of cars going by this alley that I am literally standing right next to. So I apologize in advance. I will do my best, but there may be noises in the background. Anyway, enjoy!
[1:05] Well hello, friends! Today I’m gonna take you down a Dani Rabbit hole. I’m going to be discussing boredom, attention spans, the COVID-19 pandemic, social media, and traffic accidents. It seems like a lot, and they’re actually all connected…at least in my brain anyway. I’ll attempt to bring you from point A to point B by the end of the episode. So, sit tight and enjoy the ride.
[1:33] Alright, we’re talking about Line 3 again today. Construction is now literally at the Mississippi Riverbank. Water Protectors are calling for support and help at the frontlines. Enbridge is continuing with construction of the Line 3 pipeline illegally (because of course laws don’t apply to them) and Indigenous Water Protectors are still standing in defiance. They’ve been standing in defiance for over 7 years, and now the time has come where as much support as possible is needed. On the Stop Line 3 website a page has been created specifically for instructions and protocol for frontline resistance, called ‘Come to the Line’. The page gives information about each camp along the route with specific protocol and security practices for each camp. They provide helpful training links for frontline resistance work, as well as safety and security measures to take. It’s essentially a frontline resistance starter guide aimed specifically towards Line 3 resistance in Minnesota. One very important section of the page includes The Seven Values of Honesty, Humility, Truth, Wisdom, Compassion, Respect, and Courage. They explain what each value means to encompass, and then break down specific ways to bring these values on your trip to the frontlines in the next section called ‘Be a Good Relative’. If you go to the camps, remember that you are a visitor, and not just at the camps, but actually on all these lands. Respect the cultural practices of the People and Place you are visiting, always. Live with The Seven Values in the forefront of your mind and in your actions, especially while visiting one of these camps. If you are unable to be on the frontlines in-person, you can pressure your lawmakers or contact President Biden directly telling them to immediately stop construction on Line 3 and all fossil fuel projects, or donate supplies or money directly to the frontlines. There is a helpful Google Docs Dashboard that StopLine3.org has created with helpful links for all of these actions and more. I’ll link that Doc, the ‘Come to the Line’ page, and the StopLine3.org website in the episode notes.
[3:45] Before we get too far into the episode, I want to take you behind the scenes real quick. I was recently on Twitter posting for the last episode when I saw that I had some notifications, which I rarely get. Apparently, a tweet that I sent about an urgent call for Water Protectors in the Red Lake Treaty Camp was retweeted 100 times! I felt so great about that, and so glad that this tweet was the one being retweeted! I got a few followers from that tweet so I figured I’d check to see if I had some more downloads. And low and behold, I reached over 500 downloads! I can’t tell you how much seeing the gradual growth in my message getting out there helps keep me going. Thank you all, beautiful listeners, for listening and sharing! It really does mean the world to me. I’ll link a resource for the Red Lake Treaty Camp post in the episode notes, if you’re interested.
[4:41] {Singing} *Shooouuuuut-Ooooouuuutttttsssssss* And now, a very special thank you to my fantastic Patrons! I am incredibly grateful for your belief in me and this message. If you’d like some special recognition as a member of the Understanding Kindness Patreon family, join us at patreon.com/understandingkindnesspodcast.
[5:09] Okay, so where do I start? With the boredom? The attention spans? The traffic accidents? The pandemic? Sure, let’s start with the pandemic. As we were all quarantined in our homes for over a year and subject to our own devices, we learned quickly that boredom will creep up whenever opportunity presents itself. We tried to keep ourselves busy, we learned new skills, read new books, watched lots of tv; but let’s face it, there’s only so much we can do while quarantined between four walls. When we exhausted all of the usual fun options, many of us turned to our phones for a source of entertainment and boredom-stopper. These miraculous little inventions can keep us entertained for hours on end…but is that what we really want?
[6:02] As you may remember from way back in episode 8, titled “Social Media is Killing Us.”, social media is killing us, at least our attention spans anyway. We’re able to access anything we could ever want in the palm of our hands. As soon as one thing has lost our attention, there are literally millions of other things waiting to grab our attention for at least a few seconds before we’re onto the next. And this cycle repeats itself over and over again and again until, maybe hours later, we decide to look up from our screens at the real world. But how have those hours of continuous scrolling affected us in the real world?
[6:41] If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that our attention spans are becoming dangerously minuscule. As places are opening up and people are out and about more, we’re back to, and possibly up from, pre-pandemic levels of traffic (at least that’s what I’m noticing in my area). With this I’ve noticed much more aggressive and erratic driving. On what used to be a relatively calm drive from my house to my mom’s, since people have been back on the road this drive has become much more dangerous. Now, on almost every occasion that I’ve made that drive, I get cut off at least twice going one way, and I witness at least another 3 occasions where someone does the same to another driver. I’m not joking here, on average I’m witness to or involved in at least 5 instances of cut-offs on one 45 minute drive! I also see at least one person each time I drive on the highway use the shoulder as their own personal lane. They can’t be bothered like the rest of us to wait in traffic. (I understand that people have emergencies and use the shoulder for those purposes. It is pretty evident that these are frustrated drivers who are not using the shoulder for these reasons by their lack of use of hazards and, on occasion, the other drivers who I see pull onto the shoulder to follow their example.) This is the same exact route that I would drive pre-pandemic and would only on occasion experience someone cutting me off. And let me tell you, this usually isn’t just a quick cut off that kind of happens out of nowhere. Most of the time, I am watching the person zoom around all the other cars and try to get in front of everyone else, many times with very little room for error. I also see many people trying to speed up to pass someone, notice that they don’t have quite enough room, tailgate the car in front of them for a bit, then quickly squeeze their way in front of the car next to them. These instances in particular make up more than half of the cut-offs that I encounter now.
[8:43] When this happens to me, most of the time I lay on the horn because I or someone else is forced to brake suddenly and excessively to accommodate this one person. It’s extremely dangerous. And I’m sure it’s a big part of the reason for the 8% increase from 2019 in vehicle accident-related deaths nation-wide in the US (those numbers have been taken from The National Safety Council). This is particularly stunning because while we were all put up in our homes during 2020, miles driven nation-wide decreased by 13% from 2019. So, in a year where we drove less, fatalities from traffic accidents shot up to an estimated 42,060 People. There has to be some explanation, and my guess is that we can turn to the pandemic itself for an answer.
[9:31] My viewing of how the effects of the pandemic on us affected our driving goes like this: we’re stuck at home and bored after we’ve exhausted all of our usual entertainment-busters. We turn to our phones, where the algorithms of apps are designed to keep us on them for as long as possible (aka addicted). Now, part of that algorithm that keeps us hooked is a constant flow of what the algorithm has learned that we as individuals enjoy. A combination of this constant flow with a briefness of certain videos has lead to a reduction in our attention spans. With the constant flow, there is always another 6 second video waiting for us to lock our eyes and ears onto. Once we’re slightly bored or uninterested in one video we can extremely easily access another one that, odds are, we’ll enjoy just as much for about just as long. Continuing this vicious cycle over and over again, possibly multiple times a minute, trains us and our attention spans. We’re learning that as soon as we’re slightly uninterested, we can tune out and move onto something else, with no consequence to the thing that was just holding our attention, no matter how short that time actually was. This does detrimental things to our attention spans. Effectively, we’re training them to be shorter and shorter by allowing ourselves to disengage as soon as another thought pops into our minds. So, poof, there goes our attention spans. Now, let’s hold onto that idea for a moment while I discuss the boredom aspect.
[11:08] It may seem pretty obvious by now, but this reduction in our attention spans fuels us to become bored much sooner than we might otherwise be without this training we’ve been putting our minds through. As soon as we’re bored of one post or video, we’re onto the next one. So, outside of our phones, in the real world, we become bored very quickly. I’ve experienced this quite a few times with my nieces and nephews. I’ll be talking to them about something, wanting to have a conversation, when after we’ve exchanged a few words on the topic, my niece or nephew will turn to their phone and start scrolling while I stand there looking around until eventually I walk away because I guess the conversation is over. And to be fair, this isn’t just something that I’ve noticed with my Gen Z/Gen Alpha nieces and nephews, this is something that I’ve noticed with Millennials as well. Like, take for example, this Millennial right here. Tell me if you relate.
[12:04] Every, single, time that I meditate this happens to me: I’m sitting there, ya know, meditating. I’m focusing on my breath, I’m feeling my body rise and fall as oxygen fills my lungs and fuels my cells, and whatnot when, wasn’t I supposed to call Mom to remind her about picking up her prescription on her lunch break today? Or was that tomorrow? Should I go visit her tomorrow? Oh, well I was gonna go grocery shopping. But I guess I could go to her place afterwa- oh man, I was supposed to be meditating, right. Okay, the breath and yes, okay we’re back in now. My body feels so strong and powerful with each breath. This is peaceful. [silence for a few seconds] I think I’m gonna get something to eat after this. How long is lef-
[13:01] Anyone? Anyone else? That is almost an exact depiction of how short my attention span is, especially while meditating. I just jump from one topic to the next. But of course, that’s why I practice meditating and mindfulness, and why I highly recommend it! {cheek clicking}
[13:18] So, it’s not just the young kids who’ve grown up on those devices who are experiencing this reduction of attention spans. And let me say real quick, this is not by any means the fault of the users. It is 100% the fault and responsibility of the app developers and algorithm creators. They are the ones who have created and/or facilitated this attention deficit we’re all experiencing. So, as we turn our eyes from our screens to the road in front of us, we take that same attention span with us. We’re in traffic now and we want to get out now, we want to go where we want to go, when we want to go there. I do not care about the other cars on the road, they are obstacles to me getting where I want to go. I do not care about the other people who are in the cars, I do not care about their lives. I’m willing to risk both of our lives to get where I want to go, and BAM!
[14:13] In my opinion, based on what I’ve observed and what I’ve been thinking through, it seems that that extra time that we spent on our phones cruising through social media during the quarantine months of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a diminishing of our attention spans. Thus, when we get behind the wheel, our shortened attention spans come with us and we apply it while driving. It causes us to jump from one thought to the next, from one want to the next. Since we’re able to act on it so immediately on our phones, we begin acting on our wants as immediately as possible in the real world, even while driving; causing us to cut others off, weave through other cars on the road, and ultimately cause traffic accidents at an 8% deadlier rate than the previous year.
[15:00] Social Media really might be Killing Us. The abundance of time that we spent on our phones during this pandemic lead to an impatience that we take with us everywhere we go. Social media and the algorithms used on these platforms have reduced our attention spans to mere slivers of what they once may have been, increased our inability to cope with boredom, and ultimately lead to us experiencing even more death due to traffic accidents. All of this, of course, is just based off of my observation and thinking, though, at least to me, it seems to make a lot of sense. What do you think? Am I really stretching here? Or have you experienced some of this as well? Send me an email or a DM with your thoughts!
[15:48] {Singing} *Recommendaaaationsssss* Here we go buddies, it’s recommendation time! Just by my reference to the episode in this one, I’d recommend listening to episode 8 of this podcast, titled “Social Media Is Killing Us”. There I go through some basics about the algorithms used on those platforms and how they are shaping our futures. Give it a listen for some background on that. Next, we’ve got the Line 3 resistance again. Things are ramping up and Indigenous Water Protectors need help. They’ve sent out an immediate call to action, and need bodies at the River now. Visit the Stop Line 3 website and ‘Come To The Line’ hub there for important details about joining the resistance. They’ve also created a very helpful Google Docs Dashboard for quick access to information. If you are able, head to Minnesota to help defend the Water in the Indigenous-led resistance. You can contact law makers or US President Joe Biden to demand they end construction of Line 3 and all fossil fuel projects. If nothing else, spread the word so we can get as many people to the frontlines as possible. Then, I mentioned the Red Lake Treaty Camp and want to extend an invitation to look at the resources for learning more about the resistance there, and join in if you’re able. I’ll link my specific post that I mentioned, as well as a place where you can find more info on how to join in the resistance at the camp. And lastly, a friendly reminder and recommendation to appreciate the Water you have and use. Water gives us life and allows us to do so much. Be grateful.
[17:26] If you enjoyed this episode, help support the podcast! All this content is free and I’d love to make it my job one day, so if you’re financially able join our patreon or send a one-time or recurring donation through paypal! You can also share an episode with family or friends, and give UK a kind rating and review!
Check out UnderstandingKindness.com for all episodes, transcripts, and blog posts. And why not take a listen to my other podcast, Better When Awkward, co-hosted by my childhood best friend Jasmine!
Get in touch with me by emailing UnderstandingKindness@protonmail.com, or through social media. You can find all links in the episode notes.
For now, be kind, be compassionate, be understanding, and question everything. I’ll be here. Thank you for listening to this episode of Understanding Kindness. [End transcript]
[18:12] Maybe I should narrate the bloopers more, or like this- oh what? This dead…when, when like a noise is happening, I could maybe narrate it.
We learned that boredom will creep up whenever opportunity presents itselfs- presents itself {firework noise} Why did I decide to record…on the 4 July?…Ugh, this is gonna happen all night…and at night!
But let’s face it, there’s only so much we can do while quarantined between four wah- {New York accent} walls.
These miraculous little intervention- {snap} These miraculous little in-ventions-
Aaaaand firework break.
Okay, I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure that the neighbor is now having a party and has some music on in the background. I’m sorry, I’m sorry everybody. It’s just gonna be one of those episodes. Maybe I’ll re-record it in the future, maybe not ‘cause this might be funny…and I learned a lesson.
So we got some more fireworks, intermittently I guess. I’ll try one more time and then I’ll just keep going if it keeps happening. I also think there’s still a car in the alley. Now there’s people in the alley.
I’m gonna hold for a bit, I messed up that line, but also…the cars still, of course. Water break, and ya know, firework break. The cars though, they just like to sit and idle in the alley.
Waah-waaw {crashing noises} oh, oh that’s loud. Okay, we’re done now…Let’s edit! [End transcript]