There is a somewhat unusual title that justifies a somewhat unusual thought that came to me. Don’t treat this as something profound, as it isn’t but the parallels I am going to draw here are uncanny.
I am addicted to Youtube and probably that’s the only social media platform that I might never leave. In fact, I am planning to make my own videos there.
If you have been on the platform even occasionally you would notice that there are 3 ways you can find or consume content.
- Youtube Shorts – YT’s answer to Instagram Reels or the OG – TickTok
- Feed – Long form content that is filtered as per your likings and interests
- Search – When you want to intentionally find some content to watch
Mode 1 & 2 are entirely dictated by algorithms. Short form of content has been a rage from quite some time and serves well for the attention starved mind of ours. Depending on what can hold your attention for 20 sec, Shorts will keep fine tuning the content. A sure-shot way to get hooked and have a quick entertainment ready whenever you are bored. The problem, you can’t recall a single thing you watched even though you spent hours on it. The pinnacle of passive consumption.
Feed differs in length and that changes things somewhat. You invest deeply in the content, provided that isn’t a background hum when you are doing something else. You have to hold your attention for at least 5-8 minutes and the option to quickly switch to new videos isn’t entirely frictionless. There are many studies that say that long-form content is a lot better for our brain that the short form once (the term brain-rot emerges from this short form content addiction). Due to the length of the video, you get a chance to get a rounder perspective on the topic. But this again has a problem. It is the algorithm that has selected videos for your feed and the more you use the platform, the better the algorithm gets at understanding your interests, opinion, what you agree or disagree with. So over time, you create your own echo chamber.
The search is the least influenced by algorithm and being a Google company, YT’s search is pretty darn good in finding you the content you want. “The Content You Want” is the major distinction here. Here you are completely intentional about what you want to watch and not what the algorithm thinks you want to watch.
When you go about day-to-day activities, all 3 modes of interactions are open to me in real-life as well. One is the completely automated flow. Multiple small tasks that keep propping up for you to handle and the day ends. You have no clue what you did throughout the day, but you have been busy. This happens quite often with me on both work and non-work days.
2nd is like the mental task-list that gets created passively as you procrastinate on somethings or something that just comes up demanding time and attention. This is the daily Feed. This is the laundry list of items that gets piled up for weekends. Since this is a bit more intentional than Mode 1, it feels productive. And you remember or even proud that you have finally done the tasks.
The 3rd is the definition of intentionality. You are neither bombarded with tasks, nor a mental task is there for you to tick-off. Here you actively seek the thigs you wanted to do with your day (or life). This takes more efforts and purpose but a lot more rewarding. You get the satisfaction that you have chosen to do something and finally did it. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Mi-hie Chick-sent-me-hai) calls this a “flow state” where you kind of lose sense of time. Not all work could transcend you into flow state but seeking such work is good starting point in itself.
I am not sure whether I can use this framework faithfully to be more intentional, but I would give it my honest try.
