The Folly of Distractibility

In Proverbs, the opposite of wisdom is often personified in a character known as “the forbidden woman.” A woman of “smooth words” (Prov. 2:16–17) whose lips “drip honey” (5:3), she is “loud,” “seductive,” and “sits at the door of her house,” “calling to those who pass by” (9:13–15). A. W. Tozer describes her as “moral folly personified” who “works by the power of suggestion.” 

In today’s world, we see the “forbidden woman” at work through “watch this next!” algorithms that lure us into constant distraction by putting “suggestions” into our minds. Here’s Tozer:
 

Many are brainwashed from nine o’clock in the morning or earlier until the last eyelid flutters shut at night because of the power of suggestion. These people are uncommitted. They go through life uncommitted, not sure in which direction they are going.

The antidote to dangerous distractibility is purpose, focus, and intention. Proverbs 4:25 says, “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.” This is wisdom in contrast to the unwise woman of folly, who “does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it” (Prov. 5:6).
 
When you go online, ask yourself what you are going online to do. Is there a specific goal? When you open YouTube, is it to watch a specific thing? When you reach for your phone as you wait in line or walk from one place to another, is it for a purpose or just out of habit? When we aren’t going somewhere, we’ll go anywhere—and the “anywheres” of the Internet are rarely good for us. 

- Brett McCracken, The Wisdom Pyramid: 

Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World, 2021