(This device enables you to be hands-free while eating your burger. You put it over your neck somehow.)
Yesterday morning, trending on Yahoo was especially entertaining.
1. Megan Rapinoe
2. Charlie Sheen
3. Jessica Alba
4. Dalia Dippolito
5. Home Alarm Systems
6. Background Check
7. Taylor Swift
8. Tupac Shakur
9. SUV Lincoln Navigator
10. Kylie Jenner
No wonder we need life coaches. The whole world and chunks of the universe at our fingertips, multiple search engines to take us on our journeys, and where do we travel? To visit Megan Rapinoe and Charlie Sheen?
I’ll start with the observation that that list has too many people. The only nonhuman nouns: Home alarm systems, background check and SUV Lincoln Navigator. Well, that’s cheery!
I will note that Tupac has now been deceased for over two decades — unless you are part of the O.G. crowd. Tupac Shakur O.G. or Ostensibly Gone was purported to have passed away in 1996. Not everyone believes he’s gone. I remember a former student explaining to me that Tupac’s death was a clever ploy to lay low; his honesty had netted him so many enemies that he could not continue in a public lifestyle.
He’s been laying low for quite awhile now.
Tupac’s presence at #8 is not strange. The film All Eyez on Me was released on June 16, 2017 and has made a respectable $44 million or so. I’d say Tupac is the most interesting entry on the above list, film or no film.
But I’d like to suggest my own response to the trend list. Don’t follow! Never click! I’ve been guilty of clicking myself. The next thing I know I have launched onto relationships I never knew about by people I have never heard of. Apparently WBNA superstar Sue Bird has announced she is dating Seattle Reign and USWNT star soccer player Megan Rapinoe.
I mean, I’m happy for them, don’t get me wrong. But these are the minutes of my life. (Some of which I spent yesterday reviewing Tupac’s biography.) I don’t get them back. I don’t get to use a time turner necklace to reclaim my minutes so I can finish the painting in the basement instead.
EVERY CHOICE WE MAKE CARRIES OPPORTUNITY COSTS. I might have been catching up on Agents of Shield instead of reading about the unknown Megan. Obviously, I don’t want to say we should always be using our time for profound and noble purposes. But if you want to catch up on Supernatural or weed the garden, it won’t happen while you are clicking on Jessica Alba.
Do you honestly care what is happening with Jessica Alba? If you do, click away. The problem is that most of us are never more than seconds away from a search engine. Clicking/tapping becomes too easy and sometimes even automatic.
Today’s advice is simple:
- Try to be mindful of clicks. They tend to become background noise even as we surf our minutes away.
- Ask yourself: What could I be doing instead?
- Try buckwheat honey in your cocoa. Put in a little less chocolate. I love this combination.
