Too much of the same thing, good, bad or ugly, we lose interest very quickly. Even with the best of intentions, the novelty will eventually wear off overtime.
The other day I decided to un-follow those Facebook pages that I once loved. Why? I had enough. The spark was no longer there.
In the very beginning I simply skipped over those boring posts. As they’d become a bit same old, same old to me. At the end, I removed them all, in one stroke. Now my feeds look cleaner and tidier.
Imagine someone keeps telling you the same old story over and over again. If it’s a good news, you may feel happy for them at first. But later, when you hear it long enough, it’ll start to sound like a broken record. Likewise, if it’s something a bad news, you may feel sorry for them at first. But later, when you hear it too often, you will start to feel a bit numb.
When I was working in the city CBD, I noticed most people just couldn’t care less about the homeless people or beggars on the street or outside a mall. Not that they had no sympathy towards them. They got desensitised. It’s sad but true, it’s same bunch of people sitting there day in day out, nothing has changed. We get used to seeing them this way.
Fortunately or unfortunately, our brain is biased. In this day and age, information overload is the norm. When a news repeatedly filters through to our head space during the day, our attention span will only get shorter and shorter. Consequently it will no longer touch us.
It’s no wonder someone like me has become very selective. To make sure my listeners or followers stay engaged, focused and interested, it’s important to keep the stuff I share original. The best cure for boredom is creativity.
And the last word? Repeat after me. Say it once, not twice: We are only humans. We get desensitised…
Ted Tsai 