News feed

Undoubtedly if one is tech-savvy, one would have discussed merits & demerits of social media, and its impact on one’s lives. As social media use has become ubiquitous, in spite of personalised feeds which rely on user experience of multitudes of people to curate content for just a single user (who can spot the contradiction here?), it has become more and more laborious — in omni-present deluge of messages — to hone in towards better content (at least passively, that’s why it’s still expeditious to actively use search engines), but rarely one comes across gems of ideas that carry great value.

With that said, I would love to share what I found in my news feed in past few days and follow it with brief comments.

Exhibit 0

Live life incrementally.

If one is a consumer of brain sciences (or even popular brain sciences), one would be keen to correlate the above message with the inter-play of neurotransmitters Serotonin & Dopamine. Unless one is depressed or anxious, one mainly doesn’t need to worry about it. But this resonates with incremental approach towards life and is a key to understanding how to make the best of our life journeys.

Exhibit 1

Concisely empowering!

Jean-Paul Sartre is a well-known philosopher of Continental tradition. But this four words sentence is meaningful beyond one’s imagination. The “Theory of Constructed Emotions” places responsibility of one’s emotions with oneself and it provides a very interesting explanation for why same situation leads to differing emotional percepts in different individuals and emotional reframing and re-categorisation are potent tools to master one’s emotions. I would be remiss if I don’t quote Nietzsche here as it illustrates emotional re-categorisation as an intelligent way to overcome adversity. So, this brings us to our next exhibit.

Exhibit 2

Seek out & be adventurous!

So, how does this all add up?

• A vibrant life is one of calm striving.

• Emoting responsibly is central to a fulfilling life.

• And having effective emotional concepts enable us to adapt to variegated challenges in life.

In the end, I would leave you with an excellent primer on “Theory of Constructed Emotions”.

The Mind at Work: Lisa Feldman Barrett on the metabolism of emotion

PS, did I do better than your standard go-to social media platform? ;)