Slot Machines
It’s a slot machine. All of it. It happens daily. As soon as I share a thought online. As soon as I send out a text message and wait for the response. As soon as I open Twitter and start scrolling through all my favorite sources of information. The Like I receive on Facebook after publishing something. The person that decided to subscribe to my blog, or the donation someone gives the site to help support it. For me personally, the list is very long, and it takes intense intentionality to fight the stimulation. It’s all there at my fingertips, whether I like it or not, but how much will I allow into my life?
Immediate gratification. It’s a slot machine. They built it this way: With the bright colors and red badges screaming at you that something is waiting for your attention. To keep you coming back. It’s exciting, isn’t it? There’s settings to fix some of these issues (to turn the badges and notifications off and even the colors), but most of these attacks are simple challenges to our self-control. We’re the problem. We want this.