Throughout “How to Do Nothing,” Odell continuously mentions the idea of a person going through a period of removal “…that fundamentally changed their attitude to the world they returned to.” She argues that it is through these experiences where real change occurs and one can finally resist the attention economy. It is important to understand that when Odell is talking about these retreats of doing “nothing” she is urging the reader to experience a reset rather than a simple pause of their life. This is because to pause means simply to temporarily stop and eventually return back to its normal state, whereas the idea of resetting suggests that there must be actual change occurring which is what Odell is encouraging.
She uses various examples to back this idea of a reset such as the revolutionary experiences and stories of Levi Felix, her father, Michael Weiss, and others. This is made clearer in chapter 2 when she says “I’ve already written that the “doing nothing” I propose is more than a weekend retreat.” The story of Odell’s father returning to reality after quitting his job and living cheaply for two years struck me in particular. During his Journey, he learned not only to understand his anger but also found a new compassion for creativity and openness. “With renewed energy and a different perspective on his job, he went from technician to engineer, and has filed around twelve patents so far.” This story is remarkable and as she sums up “… made him understand himself not in relation to that world, but just to the world, and forever after that, things that happened at work only seemed like one small part of something much larger.” Although this experience is amazing, the truth is revelations like these are rare to come across and it feels like Odell is neglecting the smaller stories that have a minor change in one’s life but still yields great importance.
These examples that Odell uses lead me to believe that she is looking at the definition of reset through the lens of a computer’s definition which implies a complete overhaul of its settings or a massive change in a person’s view of life . Personally, one issue I find with this idea is that she seems to say that a reset is black and white and can only be done on a large scale to really resist the attention economy. Although I agree that a reset is necessary to resist, I believe a reset should be seen as any form of adjustment that results in being different whether it be on a large scale or a small scale. It is important to recognize that there are minor instances of removals that can still teach an individual how to grow and even resist the attention economy.
Truthfully, I have never had a period of removal from the attention economy that would be considered a massive reset with tremendous change such as the examples Odell gives us from Levi Felix, her father, Michael Weiss, and others. However, one sort of disconnect that brought about great change in my life was the summer going into 7th grade when my parents sent my cousins and I to live with my grandparents in Brazil for four weeks. There, we stayed on my grandfather’s coffee farm which spanned around 35 acres with no internet. At first, I remember being an obnoxious middle schooler furious that I could not use any social media or play any games, but as time went on I learned to enjoy myself and live in the moment. I remember traversing the large plantations with my cousins, fishing for food, eating guava from the trees, and listening to my grandfather play his beloved accordion at night whilst I layed on a hammock looking up to the stars. This small experience also taught me the idea Odell brings up of sensitivity versus connectivity. I realized the face to face moments I had with my cousins and grandparents will never amount to any online interaction we will ever have. Going to Brazil for four weeks may not seem like a long period of removal in the eyes of Odell, and may have not changed my entire view on life like the people that she mentions, but it was still a significant experience that helped me in a strange part of my life. The temporary raw lifestyle that I had to live, manifested into me and taught me to appreciate the value of family and the roots of where my family came from. It also helped me see that I previously had a dependence on the internet and that there are other things in the world that I gain happiness and productivity from.
Although this experience that I went through was not a radical change in my life that Odell suggests is necessary, I learned a lot about my family, myself, and even the attention economy. Of course I still use social media and browse the attention economy regularly, I have learned to disregard the negativity and truly not care about factors such as likes and followers. Furthermore I do not get bothered by political posts and would rather ignore them as I know they are designed to intentionally hook me in. Overall, although Odell’s idea of a reset being necessary rather than just a simple pause in one’s life to resist the attention economy holds true, I believe that this reset does not have to be a massive life changing experience. Instead it could be obtained and seen as any adjustment in one’s life that inspires a new understanding or change whether it be small or large.
E110: Seminar in Composition 