There were a few quotes from Zuckerman’s book that contributed to the decisions I made when readjusting my Internet habits:

“Connecting with people when they live next door or in the same city; paying attention to the problems and concerns of people in the rest of the world is harder still.” – 23

“We are challenged to take seriously the idea that other possibilities  are worth our time and consideration, not our immediate opposition and rejection. When we embrace these, the effect can be uncomfortable and disconcerting. At the same time, it can also be a powerful force for those seeking insight or inspiration” – 24

Considering the spark of inspiration (the Dan people mask) that led to Picasso’s subsequent masterpieces that leaned on West African masks and sculptural forms, I decided to create a new digital environment where I am more likely to stumble upon inspiration for my own work by seeking out different feeds I don’t often scroll through. Starting with the beginning of the weekend, I considered the 10-30 leisurely minutes I spend on my phone (waiting in the dining hall, just before sleeping etc.) that are delegated to scrolling. 

This is the screen that I turn to when I’m bored and seeking out something entertaining.

For the Rewiring challenge, I first removed the applications from the home screen that I seldom used, deleted the Facebook app, and then created a home screen with several apps dedicated to design and art feeds, tech newsfeeds, and overall “bite-sized” news applications. I also added a couple applications that were dedicated to logical and puzzle brain games.

I quickly discovered that several news applications required paid subscriptions, and even though I was hoping to scroll through feeds that would lead me to find new “sparks”, I also realized that I was not especially interested in feeds with articles only about tech companies and their economic value. Eliminating and adding applications helped me better understand what I was actually looking for, which had less to do with finding news articles, and more to do with discovering new ideas. I wanted to find a balance between visual content as well as interesting articles featuring topics I had never read about before.  

(note: keeping Instagram was an application I debated deleting, and ultimately decided to keep while refraining from scrolling through it, and only using it to post artwork.)

When first selecting the content I thought I wanted to see, I soon found that most of the time that was inaccurate. I chose categories like mindfulness, fashion, beauty, and design, and then realized these categories were tailored more for a general population and didn’t offer as much substance as I hoped for. 

I ended up spending more time on my phone finding better applications to scroll through and ending up with one or two that I plan to continue looking through. In any case, I enjoyed taking more time to study applications and what they offered, because I better understood the content I wanted to expose myself to. 

I also began to realize that the less popular applications actually tailored more to my interests – breaking out of the more general news articles and into specific art and art history categories.