Existing in a persistent state of bewilderment has become extremely synonymous when it comes to young people today. In a frenzy of options available and the multitude of career routes, we are often struck with the assumption that it is drastically easier for us to carve our career trajectories than ever before. While we are just in confusion!
To understand how the frenzy option often leads to chaos is very easily explainable by the fact that human brains are not tuned for absurdity. With the growing advent of technology and our dispersal towards the far-reaching end of less and less natural instinct of survival, we are often caught in a conundrum of how our brains have adapted to modern society and how biologically it is set to function. Let me try to unwrap this aspect in greater detail.
The Biology Behind
Biologically, our brains have been shaped by millennia of evolution centered around raw survival ideas. In the ancestral environment, survival often boiled down to simple, instinctual responses. Fight or flight, hunt or gather, seek shelter or forage for food. This is in vast contrast to the world we inhabit today. Our ancient neural circuitry has more often than not been overridden with a constant information influx. Options before us are vast and multifaceted, requiring a level of cognitive processing that our brains may not be evolutionarily equipped to handle. And the nature of it being highly interconnected and nuanced. Our cognitive systems are significantly thrown into overdrive with a bombardment of novel stimuli and complicated decisions.
The Psychology Of Confusion
An intriguing research by personality psychologists from Max Planck Insititute in Germany talks about the state of confusion and interest 1. Confusion and interest express itself in very similar contexts 2. The former however contrasts with the latter in the aspect of it being more of an impasse in “information processing” leading individuals to either intensify their efforts or disengage from the situation. It turns out confusion and interest are like two peas in a pod, sharing similar contexts but with one crucial difference—confusion can either propel us forward or leave us spinning our wheels in frustration.
The pace of change in our modern world is dizzying. From one groundbreaking technology of yesterday becoming obsolete today to societal norms shifting at enormous speed, the constant state of flux leaves us adrift. Caught between the expectations of society, the demands of the modern world, and the longing for authenticity and fulfillment, we grapple with existential questions that have no easy answers.
Embracing The Maze
The popular way, or more precisely an optimistic outlook is to understand the vastness of opportunity that arises from a situation like this. The very fact that we can question our place in the world and strive for meaning beyond mere survival is a testament to the incredible adaptability of the human mind. Uncertainty or confusion can be viewed as a great catalyst for growth given that we annotate positive perception with it. Rather than acting from a state of fear, we can look for ways to harness our innate creative core to carve out paths that are uniquely our own. However, at a deeper level, it doesn’t explain much about how one should navigate such a state.
Researchers view confusion through the lens of ‘hopeless confusion’ and ‘productive confusion. Having annotated a negative connotation to the state of perplexity, we often tend to move towards hopeless confusion. In such a state, the cognitive obstacle appears to be gigantic. Our efforts lead only to frustration. This decreases our motivation to the point of us giving up on figuring out an answer to the problem altogether.
Redefining Confusion In The Modern Era
However, if one is to appreciate the state of confusion, it is important to reframe the outlook for it. Moving away from the readiness and availability of information and data, we are less likely to exercise our confusion muscle. We often end up depriving ourselves of opportunities to enhance our brain plasticity. This is a tangible result of the vicious cycle of social media. It exemplifies unjust standards of living creating a bubble deprived of reality. We simply put our brains on pause, type the question into a search engine, and wait for the answer to be delivered to us.
In the chaotic labyrinth of modern existence, confusion reigns supreme. Clarity seems like a distant dream. The key is learning to distinguish between the two types of confusion and channeling it in the positive direction. Now this often leaves me wondering, if our lives today are all about navigating the maze? Where is the end point? Do we ever have the clarity that we have been trying to achieve? Maybe it is the perennial journey.
Trying to navigate confusion, we may find that the journey itself is the ultimate destination. Maybe the true state of clarity does not reveal at some elusive end point. But rather makes appearances as richness of our experience along the way.
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