\r\nThis was written December 10th, 2025<\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nLost Time<\/h2>\r\n
\r\nTime, a valuable currency in this society. And yet, it’s all being wasted all the time.\r\nBut here’s the secret, all these modern inventions all intended to retain your attention,\r\nwhere you spend a few hours scrolling mindlessly, and at the end of it, don’t really\r\nrecall any of the content? Welp, it turns out the business model isn’t what we actually\r\nassumed it was. They’re not just trying to retain your attention in order to sell\r\nadvertisement space. After all, if you can’t remember any of the content you watched, are\r\nyou really more likely to retain any of the information from the ads you’re watching?\r\nNot particularly.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSo, what are they actually trying to get at with this? Welp, turns out this time you’re\r\nwasting, that’s seemingly flying away, disappearing in the blink of an eye, it’s not\r\nquite going away. It’s being taken away from you and redistributed. Yes, you heard me\r\ncorrectly, they’re actually just stealing your time to give it away to others.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nBut how does that work exactly? Well, I’m not a technical person, so I don’t understand\r\nthe technology or sorcery behind this, but I at least know what the result is. You’re\r\nbasically just skipping ahead with a small cut-scene served to you. And what’s done with\r\nthat time? Well, it’s sold to the highest bidder, of course. And that tends to be companies,\r\nwhich want for their employees to be more productive.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nIndeed, it’s not like your time you lost is simply turned into “lifespan”, that would be\r\na bit ridiculous. Instead, it’s turned into actual time that can be re-used, just introduced\r\nin a gap. Though really, in both cases, it’s really more of a multiplier. Which you’re\r\nbeing drained, it’s as if time goes faster. While you’re re-using it, it’s the opposite,\r\ntime just goes slower, allowing you in turn to accomplish more in a shorter period of time.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSeems wonderful, doesn’t it? Yes, that could be really useful, however, it’s not like this\r\nis actually accessible to most of us. After all, were you really aware prior to now? I\r\nwould bet not. Of course, only companies get to make use of this. And without our\r\nexplicit consent. Oh, yes, they get our tacit, implicit consent, hidden without the\r\nendless pages of legalese know as “User Agreements”, which, let’s be frank, not a soul\r\nreally reads unless they have to. And even then, those things are camouflaged under\r\nobscure terminology.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSo, as we were discussing, companies use this “lost time” in order to make their own\r\nemployees more productive. Parts of the wealthy population also make use of this technology\r\nfor their own purpose. You might know someone like that, always doing a thousand things\r\nat the same time, juggling way more things than seem possible in a single day, and yet\r\nthey’re successful at all of them. They’ve probably managed to buy some of that lost time\r\nin order to handle everything.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAnd how can you possibly compete with such people? After all, they’ve got a double edge\r\nover you. Not only do they not waste and lose time getting it sucked through these devices,\r\nbut they even acquire extra time. It does sound unfair, the successful feeding their own\r\nsuccess. But so is life, and decrying injustice tends to be insufficient, you first need\r\nto rise to the top before being to enact change.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nUnsurprisingly, if this time was transferred in order to help propel helpful science forward,\r\nI might not raise any alarms. (Although, ethically, I might still be concerned). But instead,\r\nit’s simply serving to feed the economy, not being redistributed in anyway down to the\r\npopulace. Accordingly, this feels like a no-brainer, and I’m here to raise awareness. If\r\nyou decide to consume still, that is your own issue. But you might at least be knowing\r\nvictims.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nUltimately, here is the big question: What can we possibly do? Well, at a societal level,\r\nnot much can really be done. Therefore, I have only two recommendations, one personal, one\r\nsocial. Personally, if you are against this injustice, you should move away from these\r\nsocial media, from all these apps sucking all your time away. If you do this, not only\r\nwill you be able to reclaim your own time, being able to repurpose it more judiciously,\r\nbut you also won’t be giving extra resources to corporations actively working against you,\r\nwith no care for your own interests.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nBut how can you do that? There are multiple options, some gradual, others more direct.\r\nThere exists multiple apps or extensions tracking you time spent and which can automatically\r\nblock your usage after a certain threshold. You could then gradually lower those thresholds\r\nuntil you’re ready to quit altogether, gradually weaning yourself off this addiction. If\r\nyour convictions are strong enough, and your motivation sufficient, I would highly advise\r\nto simply delete those apps, and use blockers on your browsers to prevent you from accessing\r\nthe websites themselves (on mobile, Firefox allows the use of extensions). This is the\r\nmost sure-fire way to stop. Adding extra layers of friction. And if you’re even tempted\r\nto install them again, remind yourself of the cost.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nMoreover, if you’re worried about this at a societal level, spread the word. Warn others.\r\nTell people in your circles about this grave abuse. Help the new circulate! You could\r\nalso direct them to this article. Help others escape those chains! Help set them free!\r\n<\/p>
\r\nI hope I managed to convince you of how dire the situation is, and that you’ll be willing\r\nnot only to consider such drastic measures, but to also apply them. Trust me, you won’t\r\nregret the time you’ll be reclaiming. It’s definitely worth it. And honestly, even if\r\nthis time wasn’t actually being stolen from us, only to be redistributed and repurposed,\r\nit would still be 100% worth it. You could see it as an investment in yourself!\r\n<\/p>
\r\nI wish you the best of success! I know you can do it!\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was written December 10th, 2025 Lost Time Time, a valuable currency in this society. And yet, it’s all being wasted all the time. But here’s the secret, all these modern inventions all intended to retain your attention, where you spend a few hours scrolling mindlessly, and at the end of it, don’t really recall … Continue reading Writing Challenge 2025 \u2013 13 – Lost Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2527,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions\/2527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}