Ignorance is bliss

Much of the time, perhaps too much of the time, I am convinced of the importance of something based on how much I hear about it. Not based on how relevant it is to my life, not based on how it affects those I love, but simply how many other people/blogs/ads are talking about it.

So when Seth Godin had a recent post about website design, it appeared to be a great post, not because I read it critically and came to that conclusion, but because that same day I saw it on at least two other blogs and two Twitter updates. That is a large portion of my web input.

The same goes for TV shows that advertise during football games, billboards on my way home, and National Hurricane Center updates during the summer and fall. Many things become overwhelmingly important to me.

Yet without the buzz, without the chatter, very little of that remains important to me. If I do not watch TV, I do not care what I am missing. When I recently watched a couple hours of USA while folding laundry, the lives of Adrian Monk and the noble detectives on Law & Order quickly became central to my being. A couple days later, they matter very little again.

All this reminds me that my attention and my desire are very fickle things. They are easily led about by the nose by whoever puts in the effort. Advertisers know this, and they put the effort in. Without a counterbalance, I will become a vessel for whatever others want, desiring their products, thinking their thoughts, believing their opinions. This is easy, but not the best way to live life.

The answer is to decide for myself what is important, what I want to value, and limit my input to those things. Selective ignorance is the phrase used by some. I choose who I follow on Twitter, I choose which blogs I read, I choose what TV I watch, I choose what news to listen to. Only by doing that will my life be mine and not an extension of NBC or NPR or GTD (unless I choose it).





So what is controlling your life? Are you? Why not?