FROM ENTERTAINMENT TO INNERTAINMENT

WE’RE LIVING TODAY, IN A NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL DEPENDENCY

We were ‘sold” the illusion that tech, media, and consumerism would enrich our lives, making it easier for a future with higher levels of happiness, fulfillment, and success. But in today’s world of increasing NOISE, the research indicates that we are far more depressed, anxious, distracted, disconnected and stressed than at any time in history. While a country like Denmark has ranked number one in well being for the past forty years, the United States with all its wealth and possibilities hovers around the twentieth spot. Why?

TODAY’S DIGITAL TRADEOFFS

We now find ourselves in a situation where we “take-in” over 12 hours a day of information from the internet, television, TV, games, texting, music, cell phones, etc., demonstrating an over 350 percent increase in information consumption in the past twenty years. We are truly “immersed” in the Attention Economy and with it, our addiction to screens  and the digital world.  For many of us, “it’s just the way it is now”, and we think that there’s nothing much we can do about it, or if we try to,  it’s going to be a ton of work and frustration. While some people feel the “overload” effects others simply remain immersed and disregard the effects and impact  This is today’s Digital Dilemma.

QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF INFORMATION

Both the QUANTITY and the QUALITY of our incoming diet of information has radically changed.  This represents a new and critical problem. Our information processing systems and our abilities for cognitive/ mental control are being disrupted in new and powerful ways. While most people believe that the human brain will simply “adjust” to the accelerating rates of  tech, media, and consumerism, the brain has processing limitations that make that impossible, so it’s anyone’s guess where our well being is headed in the future.  Do YOU notice any indications of things slowing down, or solutions being implemented through our educational or political systems to help us more effectively filter the QUANTITY and QUALITY of our incoming information today?   

All of us face a unique challenge unlike that of any generation before us…the challenge of “NOISE”.   Noise today is defined as the combination of three things. First – relentless distraction (another text, another photo, another video…and on and on).  Second – data overload (can’t possibly keep up).  Third – distorted information (false “facts”, misleading stories, “hype”, deceptive websites, etc.).  And now we can add an additional dimension to the NOISE equation…The Cycle of  Noise.  Society today is engulfed in the Cycle of Noise, a condition, where noise is creating more noise at an incremental rate, leaving us with higher and higher demands for coping and compensation strategies, some of which are destroying our physical and mental health (drugs, alcohol, painkillers, opioid addiction, learned helplessness, diversion, and disconnection). This Cycle of Noise, as we will discuss in future posts is new, based on the increasing rate of technological innovations and the speed of change.  The Cycle creates incremental levels of stress, which forces us into new and often negative coping skills that disrupt our long term well being. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

As the Cycle of Noise continues to increase, our world becomes one of Dynamic Balance, where our ability to manage our lives through practical and meaningful choices must adapt more and more rapidly to the changing onslaught of digital innovations, if we’re going to powerfully and effectively move into the future of the new high speed-high tech society.

ENTER INNERTAINMENT   

INNERTAINMENT, while drawing upon entertainment, offers a different type of framework for self development and for solving our current Digital Dilemma. It departs from the most popular and commonplace solutions of simply turning off your smartphone or restricting the use of your TV and digital devices as the ONLY solution.  The Center For Innertainment believes that we can USE the entertainment medium in new and unique ways, to increase and expand our human development, while moving us toward “high brain” executive functioning and higher levels of choice-full behavior.  It also understands that technology and media are both incremental and potentially “addictive”, when layered with the pleasurable elements and neurochemistry that operates on a biological level.  We’re far past the point of eliminating the increasing  array of intentional and calculated “attention getting” elements in our daily diet of advertising, marketing, media and consumer technological information.  What IS possible now, is to become more aware of the possibilities for positive growth and development that are part of problem, as well as part of the solution. 

MOTIVATION is the underlying key to our attention and our focus. By now, most of us are already addicted to our digital world, incorporating our digital devices into almost everything we do. To include, not exclude our digital motivation, we can better understand and personalize the entertainment mediums that attract us, in new and powerful ways, while integrating the tasks necessary for self-improvement in more enjoyable ways. 

INNERTAINMENT provides self development activities with an entertainment “twist”, for setting goals, time management, communication, daily elevation and for developing our individual and unique personal STORY.

We hope you’ll join us in exploring some of the tips, tools and strategies offered through the I-THEATER framework…an alternative approach toward solving some of the problems of today’s Digital Dilemma.

SPOTLIGHT:

In the new world of digital dependency, we need tools, tips and strategies that are motivational and aligned with our cultural changes. INNERTAINMENT offers a new paradigm for self development using entertainment as the gateway to elevated development.

ELEVATION:

What is your best well being strategy currently, for dealing with the incremental levels of  “NOISE” and digital dependency along with increasing your ability to expand your range of positive choices?