Making 'Mo-tea-vation' Out of 'Anxie-tea'
During our first Assembly of Term 3, we heard from Creative Arts Co-Captain, Sophia, who encouraged us to focus on what we can control, and not worry about what is out of our control.
Each week, our Student Leaders share their insights with their peers in Assembly.
I guess your alarm went off this morning. Perhaps, frustrated and helpless, you slammed your alarm. Wait, no one uses an alarm anymore; but you can’t slam your phone. In Period 1, maybe you stared at the whiteboard as the marker scribbled slowly. You wished for a speed-up button, but this wasn't the YouTube video you watched in bed last night. Your mind drifting away, you looked down at your two pens lying parallel on your flawlessly white notebook. They looked more like your skis on the soft, powdered snow in Perisher last week. Sitting in Assembly, maybe you’re counting down the hours until you can get back on TikTok for some excitement. Why sit in class when you could be on your phone?
I'm here to talk about how media and technology have shaped our behaviour and habits, our shortening attention span, and the loss of self; something you might not have considered. Even with endless streams of entertainment and shortcuts to knowledge, there are drawbacks to this amazing technology.
We spend hours on TikTok, consuming nuggets of information for an easy dopamine hit. This continuous temporary stimulation is more readily available than the joy of learning something at School that takes weeks or months, making us numb to excitement.
Walking out of the cinema for lunch after watching Inside Out 2 last week, there was a poster in the café saying, “People say life is a cup of tea—it's all about how you make it.'' I guess, for our generation, the only option on the menu is ‘anxie-tea’. Mass media provides us with a dangerous selective presentation of content. We spend hours on Instagram, looking at the glamorous, filtered lives that people present, but what we can’t see is everything that is cropped out of the frame, yet we still compare our raw selves to these polished images, building a toxic but delusional negative identity.
Getting used to social media’s algorithms that spoon-feed us information, we fear the unknown and seek results before effort. Can you recall a time when you were held back by advice before giving something a go? Seeking advice isn't bad, but sometimes it gives us anxiety about imperfection, can lead us to make assumptions, or even create stereotypes that impair our judgement – just like how I was advised not to do two major works. Yet, I made it through. I guess I found my passion and turned the cup of ‘anxie-tea’ into ‘mo-tea-vation’.
In the studio, I channel my thoughts into art. I gather the flowing energy into my arm, my hand, and the very tip of my finger where the brush rests. I focus on how the needle pushes in and out, catching the fabric stitch by stitch. I’m so deep in concentration that I’m unaware of anything else. And that meditative flow is my shelter from information overload. Creative arts help me pick up my scattered attention and turn it into something meaningful.
People say that 90% of what you worry about never eventuates, but School and exams are definitely happening. Now, I'm about to eat my own words about not going on Instagram, but here’s a quote from @principalatwenona, “It’s okay to feel all the feels.”
For the other 10% that we can’t control, yes, we don’t choose what to experience, but we can decide how to react. If you do lose yourself on the internet and find School agonising, pour away that cup of ‘anxie-tea’ and make your own. Make a cup that is meditative and brings the attention back to yourself. How? Find something you’re passionate about at School – join a club, start a sport – it doesn’t have to be something bold. Write your own algorithm, and don’t let the algorithm write you.
Welcome back to Term 3 everyone. To my dear Year 12s, we have 46 days left of School. So, make every day something you wake up excited for, like a holiday. And finally, this is the last time you’ll hear this – celebrate yourself to elevate.