On Apathy

Apathy is the feeling of not being interested or enthusiastic in anything. Apathy is not a normal human nature because we are inherently curious. It is a modern phenomenon resulting from external environment demanding our constant attention and interest.

One category demanding constant attention are various digital/content products around us competing for our time and demanding constant attention. Some examples are social media platforms, OTT media services, 24 hour breaking news type news channels.

Another category is more personal where people you interact with also demand your constant attention. For example, some companies where every assignment you work on is urgent and there is no priority or it can be your family member/friend who always feels lonely and wants your attention all the time.

When people are forced to pay attention all the time or are hooked into paying attention, after a time they stop paying attention to anything.

When people are forced to pay attention all the time then they end up paying no attention at all and start behaving like zombies. This results in behaviours like mindless scrolling, not taking any action on the issues of real concerns, not feeling any connect / with your work etc.