Enslaved by Google’s algorithm? «Emotional well-being is a long-distance race, not a ball»

But there are also those who argue that we live in a stressful time that drives us to lose mental healthhyperdemanding and hyperconnected.

But who is right? Well, who the algorithm want. I am one of those who am inclined to believe that we have a very favorable environment but I also affirm that we are enslaved to the designs of the famous algorithm.

The algorithm decides what you are going to see on your mobile, what you are going to buy and where you are going to buy it. The algorithm decides what is worth being informed about, what to give credibility and what to prostrate in oblivion.

The algorithm does not understand reliabilitynor of credibility not even much less interest. The algorithm only understands clicks. It’s like a runaway horse that jumps from one place to another, trying, for just a few seconds, what could be more interesting.

And there we are, slaves to the algorithm, feeding it back and baiting it. We are capable of doing anything stupid so that the algorithm turns us into viral. We make decisions without head or tail to see if the algorithm positions us well and gives us a minute of pleasure.

I have seen it on a professional and personal level. Fellow writers who, without a strategy and without a roadmap, have been trying different styles and content to gain the favor of a wayward algorithm.

In the end what has to happen happens, reputation is lostpeople stop reading or consulting certain pages and get tired of not learning anything, of waste time or even to read news, comments, articles or principles completely false either lacking rigor.

You couldn’t know, a fellow communicator told me. Well man, maybe yes. With every click, with every topic you choose, with every strategy What you adopt will give shape to consequences that will come back to you no matter what.

After twelve books, ten years of career as a popularizer and thirty as a psychologist, I can tell you one thing. Emotional and physical well-being is more like a long-distance race than a sudden hit.

It’s about resisting pressure, not falling into trends, ignoring the algorithm, having a certain criterionto give time to what requires time and to focus on some reliable sources.

If I have one thing clear, it is that it is much better not to have information than to have one. false information or that does not fit reality. In the midst of so much ocean of information, we need a good boat with a firm helmsman that allows us to navigate the waters of what the algorithm proposes to us, keeping the course towards what is really going to work for us.

Patience and judgment. The world will belong to those people capable of maintaining their priorities and discerning what important of the accessory, the reliable of what attracts attention, cash of what is fashion.

A minute of glory lasts exactly that, one minute. Scattered, aimless, unable to trust what we read, we end up stressed and disoriented. This algorithm thing is like life, some people are at the mercy of the waves and the wind while others have a clear direction; Some sail lost, stressed and insecure and others end up arriving at the port they wanted to reach.

You can discover other tips from Tomás Navarro (@tomasnavarropsi on Instagram) to set limits on those people who harm us in their work’Your red lines (Zenith/Planet). And also, you can read other articles by Tomás Navarro in ABC Bienestar here.