human need for diversity and distraction

Interestng topics as always May!!

I'll reply when my thoughts are well placed..and when i am more awake. But here's a few links to get things going:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420170913.htm

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Use-of-Mind-Distraction-Enables-to-Avoid-Negative-Thoughts&id=2457927

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=subliminal-messages-drive

the last article deosn't explain the need for distraction, but sort of explains how it happens.

 

distractions are the spice of life.

life is your meal, mostly stable.. you just spice it up a little with change. otherwise it's boring and bland.

 

Distractions can be necessary to take us away from painful thoughts or stressful situations. Over indulgence of course takes its toll on my productivity. Have a balance between the two.

If you have a certain way of doing things for a specific task. Something you do day to day for work or at home that is a necessity then I can find comfort in just letting my brain blank out and my body just take care of what needs to be done. Shovel tests are very much like this. Write out ST flag, take bearing, pace thirty meters, check bearing, hang flag, dig shovel test, write up paperwork, fill hole, repeat. Time passes extremely fast. Change up anything in what you are doing and you get pulled back into reality.

 

This is a much better answer than my own. I need distractions to help my brain unwind. Otherwise life just seems too dull and/or stressful to handle.

 

Balance. I think each person tends to find a balance point of comfort between life-refocusing novelty and the stabilizing effect of the familiar. Where that balance point rests varies among people for, at least, reasons of personality and age, I think.

In exploring MBTI, I've observed that while I have a strong need, stronger than many others it seems, for novel experience to refocus me on living, my sense of distress over stability loss in the wake of rapid or overwhelming change is more than others who also seek novelty.

I suspect this has to do with perceptive cognitive functions. My sense is that Ne seeks a higher degree of novelty and at a higher rate than Ni. In general I think N's seek more novelty than S's. I have less exposure to dominant/auxiliary S types, but my suspicion is that Se is probably a higher seeker of novelty than Si. My guess as to the reason the Xe perception types seek novelty more readily than Xi is due to the slower processing routes of introversion. So with introverted perception functions, there may need to be a lengthier adjustment period for effectively and comfortably processing novel input.

I've also been reading about lifespan psychology recently. According to the cited research in my reading, as one ages there is a movement among most people away from the novelty seeking and a stronger emphasis on the stability of familiarity. It appears there is some correlation with diminishing speed of information processing in cognitive abilities and a desire to consolidate effort and minimize the taxing of declining energy levels.