Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. Children have fewer imaginary friends these days

Imaginary friends were once a common phenomenon during childhood. But apparently exposure to screens has affected children's tendency to create them. It's to do with children not being bored enough - they just don't go down into a rabbit hole of imagination and self-amusement like they used to.

‘So what?’ you might say, but it turns out having an imaginary friend is a healthy thing for child. They're linked to advanced social skills, speaking skills, and increased creativity.

I've been thinking about them recently since I sometimes see my 4-year-old playing while having conversations with himself. I think it’s more that he’s narrating the Lego figures that he's got in his hands, but it makes me wonder if any of these characters recur and develop strong personalities like an imaginary friend might 🤷‍♂️

While children might not be into imaginary friends, they’re actually on the rise with adults. ‘Tulpas’ are the highfalutin name given to these imaginary friends, and if you create one, you are called a tulpamancer. There is, of course, a subreddit about tulpas with over 50,000 members.

2. We’ve officially reached the point where you can't trust video anymore

It happened with still images a long time ago thanks to Photoshop, but it wasn’t until the advent of AI that video has come under existential threat. Google’s Veo 3 was announced last week and it immediately became apparent that a lot of video work was now obsolete. Especially since you can access it for just a small monthly fee. Just watch this compilation of clips built with Veo 3.

Could my mum tell these were AI if they came up in her Facebook feed? Highly doubtful. Could I, if I hadn’t known it was AI? I’m not sure. Just a couple of years ago, young people thought older people were gullible for thinking many AI still images were photos. But now with video, young people are in the same situation.

Sure, there are small things in every clip that make you realise it’s AI, but that’ll be gone by next year. Clearly, the b-roll industry is gone. Deepfakes are now going to really easy to make. Horror movies are going to becoming extremely unsettling too, truly the stuff of nightmares. It’s all quite marvellous but also horrible, as it seems we’ve fallen over the precipice into never being able to really trust anything onscreen anymore.

3. After noticing something for the first time, you see it everywhere

We recently got a new car. A Skoda. And all I seem to see on the roads now are Skodas. But I haven't been manifesting Skodas into existence, I've just primed my brain to notice them as much as possible.

It's called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon or sometimes the Frequency Illusion. We're all unconsciously very selective about we notice, and this is just one example of how that functions. There were probably already lots of Skodas driving around, I just never paid them any mind before.

Apparently, the illusion is also exploited by social media algorithms. Is there nothing those dastardly things haven't ruined?

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to reset your focus

Go on a micro-walk.

If work or life is making you feel a bit overwhelmed, just head outside, walk around the block, and come back. You’ll feel better and more ready to tackle whatever was stressing you out. Even walking into another room, just to change your setting for a moment, can help.

You probably do something like this already but not necessarily consciously or systematically. I personally think our body’s appreciation for mini-walks might be the real reason that smoking used to be so popular - cigarettes are just an excuse to go outside regularly throughout the day and stare at something in the distance 😉

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

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