Ali Sami and Jamie Kan: Social media and the demise of our attention span

By Ali Sami and Jamie Kan

One of the stories most often displayed on Instagram is the idea that life is always pretty. This is often in the form of flawless product shots of skincare and makeup, all laid out beautifully on a crisp, white table, and usually artfully thrown next to succulent pink roses. 

In reality, all that crap is stuffed deep into the depths of our messy nondesigner purses, along with a bottle of Xanax. Yet somehow, we still buy into this unattainable, perfectionist culture. We are rapidly slipping away from reality and developing New Age ADHD.

When we see that thumb-stopping image and decide we give a slight shit, we execute the strenuous task of the double tap, then continue on scrolling through life. We’re now on par with goldfish when it comes to attention spans.

The most obvious displays of Instagram sorcery is the classic taken-from-behind, boyfriend-hand-holding adventure shot. The existence of this contrived photo trend tells us a lot about what we value in the social-media content we consume. What we stop to absorb and experience is selective, based on who we follow. And with 50 million followers, it looks like Kendall Jenner’s heart hair takes the cake. All other info is devalued, simply because we love the Kardashians.

Every so often, the voice of my soul says, “You don’t have to live this way,” especially when I get kicked out of Semperviva for celebrity-ranting on whisper mode through meditation time. I think there’s room for authenticity and human connection when we stop considering ourselves to be followers.

At what point in our frenzy of falsies are we going to go so deep into the land of make-believe that we have no choice but to loop back to reality? We can chase perfection and scroll the food we eat, the people we meet, and the things we listen to, but is that really how we want our lives to be? Shall we be so bold as to put down our phones, make eye contact, scroll less, and live more?