Hello, friends from Portland, Oregon! This article is going to be a little different than ones past as I explore writing longform, single-themed pieces, but still keeping it within a five minute read! So, without further ado, let's dive on in, the water’s great!
Intro
Last week, I went for a jog (in Salt Lake (to count the pride flags)) and listened to one of my favorite podcasts: NPR's LifeKit. LifeKit is a bunch of 20-ish minute episodes that give you insight into many of life's common questions. They cover everything from how to get more fiber in your diet to exploring gender identity as an adult to the social etiquette of lending money. But the one I stumbled onto was titled "Why we become bored with our lives (and how to find joy again)." It's a little clickbaity, but I took the bait and clicked.
The episode explores the effects of habituation, a term I had never encountered before but have definitely felt the effects of. They talk about the myriad of great literary characters we love who are plagued by this undefinable sense of ennui. From Holden Caulfield to Buddha to Pippin (for the musical theatre folks), it seems as though everyone goes through a similar period of stagnation, and it all comes back to that word: habituation.
What is Habituation?
Simply put, habituation occurs when our brains become desensitized to certain stimuli due to repetition. Even more simply put, the more we're exposed to something, the less it affects us. Our brains are exceptional at adaptation, and this is great for surviving in the prehistoric wild, but once we get used to something and our brains realize it's not a threat, it becomes less and less important. This evolutionary trait exists so that the ordinary things in an environment get filtered down, and our brains can stay on high alert for the unusual things that might cause us harm. But as is the case with most things, our society has zoomed past what our lizard brains are capable of processing. Our ancestors started out habituating smells and environmental stimuli, but now it can affect everything from anxiety to job satisfaction and even your relationships.
Why Can Habituation Be A Problem?
Habituation can affect us in a myriad of ways, good and bad. Habituation in our muscles is what helps us train for big events or lift more at the gym. Habituation is also the central concept behind exposure therapy; exposure in small doses will help our brains process the fear. But as we continue along our path of algorithmic isolation, I feel a subtler threat is growing. The algorithms that affect our lives are consistently feeding us the things that we like. But we get desensitized to those same things that used to bring us that rush of dopamine, so the algorithms feed us more extreme versions to keep us hooked. If you want more about this, the video below is a quick explainer of how quickly TikTok's algorithm learns you. It's an essential watch and the reason I do not use TikTok.
Not only can algorithms on socials be dangerous, but with the advent of AI, these algorithms will just get craftier and better at consuming our time with exactly what we want to see. Imagine that instead of TikTok showing you exactly the videos you want to watch; it makes videos perfectly tailored to keep you looking at your phone. I sort of feel like we're at a global inflection point. I remember feeling during COVID that I was witnessing a thing that the world could never go back from. We could never go back to before we knew what COVID was. And now, we can never go back to a world pre-AI. For better or worse, it's here, and we need to learn how to engage with it responsibly, ethically, and in a way that keeps us in control.
How to Combat Habituation
However, the podcast was not all doom and gloom. They laid out a few very effective ways to combat the effects of habituation.
Takeaway One - If you're feeling the effects of habituation, try taking a break from your daily routine. This could be as big as a vacation, a walk, or even just a few minutes of imagining your life without your routines.
Takeaway Two - Try to introduce more variety into your life. This could be big, like a move, or small, like a new haircut or trying a new hobby. But prioritize experiences over material new things.
Takeaway Three - Dishabituation can actually boost your creativity and problem-solving. Try changing your scenery when you're trying to tackle a particularly challenging problem.
Takeaway Four - It can be hard but try to push for more change rather than less change. Change will help you dishabituate and get some of that joie de vivre back.
Takeaway Five - Be prepared for a period of adjustment after a big change. Habituation will come in handy and ease the transition sooner than you'd expect.
What Does Habituation Have To Do With Gay Buffet?
I am the type of person who habituates quickly. In the podcast, they say that each person has their own individual habituation rate, and that can influence how quickly they get bored or how often they seek out new experiences. I am always seeking out new experiences. I'd much rather try a new restaurant and be surprised or disappointed rather than return to a familiar haunt. And I feel as though a lot of what I write about in Gay Buffet has to do with trying new things in many aspects of life.
As readers, you get habituated to Gay Buffet, too. It is natural that people will get less interested in something the longer it shows up in their inbox with no extraordinary change. And I'm not looking for extraordinary change. I like what I write, the way I write it, and the reasons I write it for. So, in light of my learnings from this podcast and with summer looming, I'm taking a page from our friends across the pond.
Summer Vacation
For pretty much the whole month of August, many businesses in Europe shut down. Their idea that summer is for relaxation and not work is far more prevalent than in the states.
"Until the 1980s Volkswagen, a German carmaker, would charter trains at the start of summer hiatus to move thousands of Italian workers from its plants in Wolfsburg, which turned into a ghost town, to their homes in Italy. One reason is that an assembly line does not function very well without a full complement of workers. It is also an opportunity to perform any maintenance or upgrades to the factory floor."
So, in the spirit of both summer and habituation, I'm going to be taking off the month of July, which also coincides with our companywide layoff from North Country. I'll be back on the 31st of July with a fresh take on Gay Buffet as it moves enthusiastically into its second year!
I hope you also take some time for yourself this summer, whatever that looks like to you. Take some time off for self-care, socializing, or even just take a day off from work if you can. Make sure that you take care of yourself in this society that doesn't quite put an emphasis on this kind of sustainable long-term relaxation. You may find this very hard, I do. I frequently have trouble allowing myself to be idle. It may be a side effect of my careers (theatre and design involve a fair amount of hustling), or it might just be my personality. But practicing intentional rest and relaxation is a skill that I am to practice.
So, with that, I bid you adieu. I'll miss you all very much, but I can't wait to come back revitalized and reinvigorated and ready to usher Gay Buffet into its terrible twos!
All my love, Aidan
Oops. July 31 😳😌🤪
Simply amazing. Can’t wait for July 1. 💕🩷😘