Psychologist Georgi Georgiev: Social Media are a Phenomenon that is Becoming a Thing of the Past

Psychologist Georgi Georgiev: Social Media are a Phenomenon that is Becoming a Thing of the Past

Attention is our most valuable resource. Multitasking makes us neither more productive, nor more efficient

We have been together on Google Plus with Георги Георгиев since the very beginning. The featured image on this post is from his personal archive, from The SEO Conference presentation of “Google My Business” in Sofia, when we first met in the offline world. Teodora Petkova and David Amerland are the unforgettable high energy part of this momentum.

The synchronicity we are working each on their own expertise is not quite evident, so I decided to include George’s interview in my dedicated edition “Business Guide”, Business Highlights, Trends and Tips on Tuesday. That’s also my way to confirm that I’m doing a self-audit of “Business Guide” and continuing to publish in 2018. Follow here:

https://plus.google.com/collection/YPoLX

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Georgi Georgiev is a psychologist specialized in cognitive-behavioural therapy. He is the founder and main driving force of “Лична ефективност” (Personal effectiveness) methodology, designed to help the individual’s personal development (www.lichnaefektivnost.com). In addition to climbing, guitar and crafts, his passion is personal development and ways of supporting it.

The interview is created from the journalist Невена Борисова

Interpreter Нели Войнова Enjoy!

– There has been much talk about the impact of social media. How do you think they affect human consciousness? How do they affect people of different ages?

– Social media are a phenomenon that is already becoming a thing of the past. All things considered, these services have been reduced to one, and although not yet clear, it is a matter of time that our communication in this social electronic context is transformed into something else. What exactly is to be seen, although there are some processes happening in the background. I would not say that the social media themselves are the decisive factor in the processes we observe. The driving force of the changes is rather the fact that keeping social media contacts is getting closer to real life communication. Social media has an impact to the extent that it forms and somehow filters the message as a medium. To what extent each person would allow such influence is a matter of informed choice.

– What is the influence of modern technologies, the Internet, the constant flow of information?

– One thing is sure, the amount of information is increasing as well as is the access to it. This information boom is a relatively new phenomenon in our history. We as a species have not yet developed adequate mechanisms to deal with it. We have a relatively limited volume of attention, our concentration is limited and we cannot handle complex tasks for too long. This confronts us with the constant challenge of processing information on the verge of our cognitive processes’ limits. This develops them, on one hand, because they can be trained to some extent. On the other hand, there is always the risk to “overload the system” and start missing important things. Hardly anyone can tell where that healthy border beyond which we challenge ourselves is. Stepping beyond it brings us development as well as the accompanying risk.

So the answer may be that they influence in a different way. They create an environment that tolerates diversity. They increase entropy, to use terms of information theory, however, paradoxically it may sound. Simply put, this increases the number of choices the individual faces. And the ability to make decisions is part of the volitional processes and therefore is an exhaustible resource. The depletion of this resource is not influenced by the importance of the decisions we make. We can exhaust it for the insignificant things and when it’s time for important decisions, to make them hastily because we no longer can endure the fatigue. I think the risks this brings to the individual are obvious.

– What would be the hygiene of the mind you recommend to anyone who wants to be concentrated and have a generally healthy regime in the background of all information and technology?

– All our conscious processes work through attention. This assigns to this cognitive process a special, privileged role. Luckily for us, attention can also be volitional, i.e. to some extent, we can choose how to direct it. And if we talk about hygiene, it is precisely the hygiene of this most valuable resource – our attention. There are two paths in this direction: to train our willingness and build an environment that somehow filters the incentives we do not want to be distracted by. The first is a process strongly targeted by education, at least at an early age. This does not mean we cannot improve things. The second is a matter of maturity as well because it requires being well aware of the relation between what is around us and the values we profess. Only if we understand this relation can we say with satisfactory precision what we can deprive ourselves of and what we need in the way of our development as personalities. Of course, we also need the purely practical part – to limit our distracting factors, to facilitate the access of the ones that support the achievement of our goals. Very often this is a matter of discipline. Fortunately, we have enough support to facilitate this process.

– Can we talk more about your project? What is its story and what are the goals?

– Лична ефективност (www.lichnaefektivnost.com) is a project that aims to provide a tool for everyone to manage their own development in a good and effective way. At the same time, we strive to make this methodology as accessible as possible. Accessible – both as access to information and as a means to implement it. Meanwhile, we want this method to be scientifically well-founded as far as possible. The story began when it turned out that there was no such instrument. If a person wants to support their own development, there is no clear method. There are alternatives of the “self-help” type of literature, which has serious shortcomings. First of all, in its greater part, this literature lacks reasoned concept to make it work. Sometimes, there are some techniques that are attributed to the role of panacea. Authors often do not take into account the individual differences of people, and sometimes the things are not in line with our cultural context at all. To some extent, in response to this, we have decided to create “Лична ефективност” as a clear, science-based, step-by-step model that takes into account individual characteristics.

We are already in our third year and we think we have a lot to boast of. The main exercises and guidelines are published on the site and are free of charge. Everyone can try to apply them. Keep in mind, however, that this is not the best way a person can help him/herself. Such exercises are often challenging, and enrolling in a course or individual counselling makes the process much easier. I hope we have more courses. Their program is structured which speeds things up. We are also thinking how to keep the method completely free – not dependent on a brand or license.

– You recently started a training course. According to your concept, what does an individual need in order to put the system into practice?

– We just talked about accessibility. Every knowledgeable on an average level person should be able to apply the offered instrument to his/her own personal development – this is our idea. What is needed to develop oneself is motivation. The facilitating devices, such as mobile phones, applications, etc., make the process easier and faster but are not an absolute must. Лична ефективност (Personal Efficiency) offers the methodology, algorithm, and the steps that support the process of personal development. Maybe it’s here where we must emphasize that this is not a recipe in the way we are used to hearing from many places. Our approach is fully tailored to the individual differences of people, so you will not find anything like “Do this and that will happen …”. Everyone sets their own goals and priorities, and what we do is to facilitate this process. The speed with which we can iterate this value structure to its practical application is actually a very important moment in the development of each individual. This is the place of our methodology.

– How would you comment on “multitasking” – another modern skill that is increasingly required not only in the labour market but is also somehow formed by new technologies?

– We already talked about the load of the excess amount of information. To do several things at the same time (so-called “multitasking”) is a spontaneous attempt to cope with this load. Unfortunately, we must admit that this is a dysfunctional strategy. In other words, something that does not work as expected. All but one or two studies that relate to specific parameters show the same. “Multitasking” makes us neither more productive nor more efficient. Changing the focus of our activities too often is, in fact, more time and energy consuming than productive in the short intervals in between. There are techniques that allow us to reduce this negative effect but, as a whole, grouping the activities in bigger intervals and avoiding frequent switch is a better solution.

– And what is a normal person?

– The standard has always been determined by the majority, although normality is not always a clear and definite image. Fortunately, in recent years we have greatly expanded the boundaries of understanding normality and successfully accept the differences without stigmatizing them. I’m not saying that there is nothing to be desired, but we have made significant progress. If we go back a little bit to the issue of social media, we can point out one of their positive roles. Access to information definitely helps this inclusion both in society and the image of normality of many risk groups.

takes into account individual characteristics.

Psychologist Georgi Georgiev (with the microphone) at a conference. Photo: personal archive. Nina Trankova at the background, prepared to continue with “Professional expertise online” presentation

Resource: http://e-vestnik.bg

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