The digital zeitgeber of our entrainment
December 9, 2022 10:27 AM Subscribe
What Twitter [or social media more broadly] Does to Our Sense of Time (archive.ph) an essay by author Jenny Odell. "Entrainment, a term that originated in biology and then spread to the social sciences, refers to the alignment of an organism’s physiology or behavior with a cycle; the most familiar example would be our circadian rhythm. The signal driving entrainment, in this case light and dark, is called a “zeitgeber” (German for “time giver”)... The concept of entrainment points to the ways in which our experience of time can be affected by so much more than the number of hours we have in a day."
To be entirely, and needlessly pedantic to the point of missing the point, I find entrainment, a term that originated in biology [...] an annoying way start to a sentence because entrainment is a term that originated in French (iirc) before arriving in english and embarking upon a rich a varied existence long before biologists chose to use it in that very specific way. I imagine many of us have seen entrainment used in a variety of contexts in which it generally means "being dragged along with". But enough with yelling at clouds.
Her paragraph about piecing together the alternative that gave her what she actually wanted out of social media reminded me of when I quit Twitter in 2017. I went back to blogs, RSS, and more of the old school web stuff. It's not a fire-hose, I regularly "finish" with the internet for the day, in that I read everything that I wanted to, and that's it. Which was a weird thing to get used to. I also find myself free to only care about stuff that matters to me. That sounds utterly bizarre but my experience of Twitter was that of being constantly nagged to care about things that ultimately don't matter, either at all or just me personally. Being free of that leaves a negative space in your awareness for a while.
posted by selenized at 11:54 AM on December 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
Her paragraph about piecing together the alternative that gave her what she actually wanted out of social media reminded me of when I quit Twitter in 2017. I went back to blogs, RSS, and more of the old school web stuff. It's not a fire-hose, I regularly "finish" with the internet for the day, in that I read everything that I wanted to, and that's it. Which was a weird thing to get used to. I also find myself free to only care about stuff that matters to me. That sounds utterly bizarre but my experience of Twitter was that of being constantly nagged to care about things that ultimately don't matter, either at all or just me personally. Being free of that leaves a negative space in your awareness for a while.
posted by selenized at 11:54 AM on December 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'm currently making the post-Twitter adjustment and what I'm finding is that, as this article suggests, I'm readjusting everything in my online schedule to reconsider how I want to spend my online time. I (re) added Metafilter and am slowly leaving/reducing time at other places so I can have more room for other things I want to do, like going outside and touching the grass occasionally.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:07 PM on December 9, 2022
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:07 PM on December 9, 2022
Odell-admirer, here, too, ever since her taxonomy of lost&founds.
other things I want to do, like going outside and touching the grass occasionally.
Have a listen to this Guardian Long Read on touching stuff (etc.), it’s on this wavelength, I find.
posted by progosk at 1:11 PM on December 9, 2022
other things I want to do, like going outside and touching the grass occasionally.
Have a listen to this Guardian Long Read on touching stuff (etc.), it’s on this wavelength, I find.
posted by progosk at 1:11 PM on December 9, 2022
Hm. I'm not feeling this so much. I've very much on social media and it feels of a piece with my RSS feeds and email.
Email is the real time-giver. It's never fucking done. That's what keeps me up.
(That and my daily Duolingo practice. Aiming for 500 days!)
posted by doctornemo at 6:51 PM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Email is the real time-giver. It's never fucking done. That's what keeps me up.
(That and my daily Duolingo practice. Aiming for 500 days!)
posted by doctornemo at 6:51 PM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think that one thing she missed is the way that anxiety factors into the equation.
One thing that the fire hose of conflict and stimulus on the internet does not do is take away our anxiety - or if it does, it does the way that nicotine does. If you are jittery take a few puffs on a cigarette. That will ensure that the jittery feeling comes roaring back stronger every time.
Once upon a time we were doing better handling anxiety and we lived at a much slower pace. Now a slow pace does not necessarily result in less anxiety. If can result in a desperate desire to break out of that life and see and feel things that are better than the four walls that surround us, and I think that the internet, because it has so much possibility, is where we are going now to look for input and reassurance. It's not that a slower paced life results in less anxiety but rather than most of the things that lastingly reduce our anxiety are slower paced things.
The number one thing that reduces anxiety is being with people who are validating you and demonstrating that they are tribe and that you matter to them. On the internet you can get some of that, as when you join a kickstarter, or a group that has a good community, or watch uplifting videos or listen to a podcast by someone who is really trying hard to fix the world and solve it. But it's not the same as being with supportive people in person and working together with them. You may enjoy listening the podcast but you also know enough that if you exclaim in pain while listening no one will hear it and glance over quick to make sure you are alright.
It's not easy to get genuine validation and support or even easy to find someone to give it to. Strangers are often on the make, or have problems too big for us to alleviate and our families live in other parts of the world and our neighbours keep to themselves. We only learn their names if their mail is misdirected into our mailbox by an over worked postal delivery person.
So you go to the internet. You are much more likely to get phatic validation, as when someone favourites your MetaFilter comment, then any actual connection. It's a surface validation, that doesn't actually come with any personal connection. Rimesforchildren may follow me on MetaFilter and favourite every second comment I make, but the connection is only the same depth as when the cashier at my local store comments on the fine weather and wishes me to have a good day. I have no idea that her husband is dying of cancer and she has no idea that I have finished another book and am walking on air happy that I have completed another satisfying piece of work. Phatic communication holds us at a distance the same way that asking "How are you?" is NOT an invitation to hear about anyone's on-going psycho-dramas. It's the polite interactions that reassure us that we are welcome among strangers, but not that we are among chosen family unless we find a way to make it deeper.
And so of course anxiety now is off the charts and personal connections are bottoming out. Our connectedness magnifies our sense of threat. We hear about a brutal murder with features that brings it sharply home to us as there are some details about the murder than make us identify with the people involved - "that could have been my daughter" or "transpeople are not safe anywhere" or "those people were so helpless" and we feel as if happened to people on the periphery of our own social group, the same kind of hurt and anger and pain as if it was the cousin of a woman we work with and she comes into work pale and distracted, instead of being able to measure how very, very far away and how rare the incident was.
One thing I do when I read about such horrors is ground myself. Yes, a little boy died under horrible circumstances but what does geography say? The child died in another country, 950 kilometers away, and 65 years ago. So how many children between me and that child have lived, grown up, survived and maybe thrived? A million? Thirty million?
Of course that does invalidate that this one death is meaningful and reason to mourn. At the same time as using numbers to ground myself, I want to look at the good the internet connection between us does. And how many million people have read about or heard about this child and care, feel anger and protectiveness? How much of a zeitgeist is it creating so that a random women 1,900 kilometers away is wondering about the child they used to hear crying in the next apartment because "remember that little boy...", how many people are signing up for amber alerts, how many people are looking at their own children and saying to themself, "calm down, slippery slope here, only BAD people blame a child..." The death is not a negligible thing. I do care and many other people care.
But the net effect anyway is to put us on hyper alert because every bad thing we hear about is one more thing to worry about. The child in the next apartment may have finally grown out of their chronic ear infections, and the woman who wondered if it was in danger is left looking at the parents in hostility - "You could be child abusers..." More anxiety, more mistrust. And to assuage that anxiety we check in with the internet again and again and again, a rat pressing a lever. Find out. Find out.
Has anything horrible happened today? Is it still alright? When nothing appalling has happened it is easy to feel both relief - and disappointment. The internet is also where we get interesting ideas and assuage our boredom. "Nothing interesting on twitter today..." can lead to a feeling of resentment. "I'm just looking for something to read..." and even more restless engagement, clicking and clicking until we find something with sufficient threat to make us angry and scared. That's where the predators are lurking today. That's where the enemy is. I KNEW they were out there somewhere.
If I don't follow twitter how will I know where the next threat is coming from? If I don't check on the news I might miss something I need to know. And then everything else I could do, everything productive and calming, the real work of my life feels slow paced, like I am obliviously practicing my music and doing my art in my Berlin apartment while the Nazis are gathering outside for Kristalnacht.
So back to the internet and a frenzied quick search for where the enemy is lurking... where, where are the circling predators tonight? THERE! There! I found one! This stupid woman is claiming that you can save the world by drinking coffee companionably with your husband! When transpeople are being the victims of terrorism? Coffee?! Coffee!! I don't even drink coffee! it makes me too jittery! - and then the fingers are flying and the rage is pouring out, fury and indignation and having the time to drink coffee, having a spouse with the time to drink coffee and liking coffee, is as much reason for pent up rage and anger as child murder.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:07 AM on December 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
One thing that the fire hose of conflict and stimulus on the internet does not do is take away our anxiety - or if it does, it does the way that nicotine does. If you are jittery take a few puffs on a cigarette. That will ensure that the jittery feeling comes roaring back stronger every time.
Once upon a time we were doing better handling anxiety and we lived at a much slower pace. Now a slow pace does not necessarily result in less anxiety. If can result in a desperate desire to break out of that life and see and feel things that are better than the four walls that surround us, and I think that the internet, because it has so much possibility, is where we are going now to look for input and reassurance. It's not that a slower paced life results in less anxiety but rather than most of the things that lastingly reduce our anxiety are slower paced things.
The number one thing that reduces anxiety is being with people who are validating you and demonstrating that they are tribe and that you matter to them. On the internet you can get some of that, as when you join a kickstarter, or a group that has a good community, or watch uplifting videos or listen to a podcast by someone who is really trying hard to fix the world and solve it. But it's not the same as being with supportive people in person and working together with them. You may enjoy listening the podcast but you also know enough that if you exclaim in pain while listening no one will hear it and glance over quick to make sure you are alright.
It's not easy to get genuine validation and support or even easy to find someone to give it to. Strangers are often on the make, or have problems too big for us to alleviate and our families live in other parts of the world and our neighbours keep to themselves. We only learn their names if their mail is misdirected into our mailbox by an over worked postal delivery person.
So you go to the internet. You are much more likely to get phatic validation, as when someone favourites your MetaFilter comment, then any actual connection. It's a surface validation, that doesn't actually come with any personal connection. Rimesforchildren may follow me on MetaFilter and favourite every second comment I make, but the connection is only the same depth as when the cashier at my local store comments on the fine weather and wishes me to have a good day. I have no idea that her husband is dying of cancer and she has no idea that I have finished another book and am walking on air happy that I have completed another satisfying piece of work. Phatic communication holds us at a distance the same way that asking "How are you?" is NOT an invitation to hear about anyone's on-going psycho-dramas. It's the polite interactions that reassure us that we are welcome among strangers, but not that we are among chosen family unless we find a way to make it deeper.
And so of course anxiety now is off the charts and personal connections are bottoming out. Our connectedness magnifies our sense of threat. We hear about a brutal murder with features that brings it sharply home to us as there are some details about the murder than make us identify with the people involved - "that could have been my daughter" or "transpeople are not safe anywhere" or "those people were so helpless" and we feel as if happened to people on the periphery of our own social group, the same kind of hurt and anger and pain as if it was the cousin of a woman we work with and she comes into work pale and distracted, instead of being able to measure how very, very far away and how rare the incident was.
One thing I do when I read about such horrors is ground myself. Yes, a little boy died under horrible circumstances but what does geography say? The child died in another country, 950 kilometers away, and 65 years ago. So how many children between me and that child have lived, grown up, survived and maybe thrived? A million? Thirty million?
Of course that does invalidate that this one death is meaningful and reason to mourn. At the same time as using numbers to ground myself, I want to look at the good the internet connection between us does. And how many million people have read about or heard about this child and care, feel anger and protectiveness? How much of a zeitgeist is it creating so that a random women 1,900 kilometers away is wondering about the child they used to hear crying in the next apartment because "remember that little boy...", how many people are signing up for amber alerts, how many people are looking at their own children and saying to themself, "calm down, slippery slope here, only BAD people blame a child..." The death is not a negligible thing. I do care and many other people care.
But the net effect anyway is to put us on hyper alert because every bad thing we hear about is one more thing to worry about. The child in the next apartment may have finally grown out of their chronic ear infections, and the woman who wondered if it was in danger is left looking at the parents in hostility - "You could be child abusers..." More anxiety, more mistrust. And to assuage that anxiety we check in with the internet again and again and again, a rat pressing a lever. Find out. Find out.
Has anything horrible happened today? Is it still alright? When nothing appalling has happened it is easy to feel both relief - and disappointment. The internet is also where we get interesting ideas and assuage our boredom. "Nothing interesting on twitter today..." can lead to a feeling of resentment. "I'm just looking for something to read..." and even more restless engagement, clicking and clicking until we find something with sufficient threat to make us angry and scared. That's where the predators are lurking today. That's where the enemy is. I KNEW they were out there somewhere.
If I don't follow twitter how will I know where the next threat is coming from? If I don't check on the news I might miss something I need to know. And then everything else I could do, everything productive and calming, the real work of my life feels slow paced, like I am obliviously practicing my music and doing my art in my Berlin apartment while the Nazis are gathering outside for Kristalnacht.
So back to the internet and a frenzied quick search for where the enemy is lurking... where, where are the circling predators tonight? THERE! There! I found one! This stupid woman is claiming that you can save the world by drinking coffee companionably with your husband! When transpeople are being the victims of terrorism? Coffee?! Coffee!! I don't even drink coffee! it makes me too jittery! - and then the fingers are flying and the rage is pouring out, fury and indignation and having the time to drink coffee, having a spouse with the time to drink coffee and liking coffee, is as much reason for pent up rage and anger as child murder.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:07 AM on December 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
I really liked this. I read Jenny Odell's How To Do Nothing a few years ago and it's really stayed with me in terms of thinking of time and how we fill our days. Thanks for sharing.
posted by mostly vowels at 9:48 AM on December 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mostly vowels at 9:48 AM on December 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love the way Odell writes: how she draws me in to a warm existential embrace, never letting go until the end, and then with a gentle release. It’s rich and compact. I’ve been trying to shift my attention away from Twitter and more toward spaces like MF. The adjustment in my experience with time is unnerving.
posted by johnxlibris at 6:46 AM on December 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by johnxlibris at 6:46 AM on December 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing is worth reading (Fanfare).
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:54 AM on December 9, 2022 [1 favorite]