#1353 - infinite scrolling
I just remembered an unexpected conversation I had ten days ago while waiting for my night train in Vadodara, in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Our train was late that night, so we found a quiet spot in the back of the waiting room. After eight days of pilgrimage in the middle of nowhere, I was overwhelmed by the overflowing humanity of a big Indian city.
I don't know, but at some point, I ended up talking with a young and energic designer who was heading home after a work trip.
Maybe I caught his attention because I was the only non-Indian in the waiting room. Plus, I must have looked like someone running from something with my sweaty clothes and my backpack.
Anyway, he asked what I was doing, so I shared my experience along the Narmada river. Not much about the outer journey but the inner one and what it means for me to create and facilitate such experiences for others.
He was very curious, and at some point, he caught me off-guard by saying that, in some ways, he was my competitor. His main task was to design digital interfaces that make people lose any sense of time, tricking them into infinite scrolling and maximizing the return of advertising.
While the pilgrimage is designed to expand people's awareness, he said his goal was to deplete their awareness by stealing their attention. At least, that was what they were asking him to do, but, according to him, he was walking away from that job.
I don't know why I remembered that scene this morning. Maybe because I scrolled through my social media more than usual while waiting at the airport last night.
I definitely need to be more aware while using my smartphone.