what computer pixels can teach us
grappling with 'the big picture'
A picture element, or pixel, is the smallest unit of a digital image that can be individually controlled. Working in groups of millions, these tiny workers produce the seamless digital images that infinitely illuminate our computers, phones, and televisions.
Like thousands of ants building a mound or bees working in a swarm to strengthen a hive, pixels exemplify a naturally occurring process for living beings– the act of breaking large tasks into the most rudimentary, tiny tasks. This method, seen outside of just coding and image curating, is both an efficient work process and a form of quality control. The same way the pyramids were built brick by brick, and patches on a blanket are created one-by-one.
If this process is effective for pixels, ants, bees, bricks, etc., to produce elaborate final products, the same method can be applied to the average human dealing with the existential crisis’ and worries that come with living.
Breaking down tasks into their simplest parts, even oversimplifying them, like a pixel producing one part of a digital image or a builder laying out a plan, can feel tedious or unnecessary. However, when looking at the ‘bigger picture’ of whatever task or issue is at hand, these identifiable, bite-sized pieces keep us from shying away or becoming overwhelmed.
Oversimplifying parts of life— regardless of whether it is a long-procrastinated task, career step, or ambiguous dream -- helps our minds chip away at the ‘bigger picture’ that we often convince ourselves is too out of reach.
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My screen time in the summer is usually much higher than during the school year. The lack of routine, commitments, and distractions leaves me with nothing to do but think. When I need a distraction from boredom or wondering or overthinking, my phone is the first remedy I reach for.
Like an extension of my hand, my phone’s ability to give me any form of distraction keeps me from falling too deep into the overwhelming nature of responsibility and reality.
Rather than entertaining my brain’s dramatics and extremes on the future and my fate and any other facet of uncertainty, I can spend an hour absent-mindedly scrolling. Instead of being anxious about everything I could be doing in a moment, I can instead concern myself with forming an opinion on whatever reality show is trending or reading discourse on a recently-cancelled celebrity.
This is only holding me back, but the comfort in doing nothing instead of having to choose to work on anything has become all too familiar.
In reality, there are countless other pieces and steps before my final goals to decipher, and spending so much time dwelling on my final destination or end result is useless and ineffective. There is no need to ponder the impossible nature of the future when there are still so many steps left to get there and so many places for redirection.
Forcing myself to reframe my brain's thespian-like thoughts of existential crisis and dread over accomplishing all of my dreams and goals into different questions, ones that are much more conceivable;
At this moment, what can we do to start the hazy visions of success we’ve been patiently waiting to begin? What can be done from my never-ending to-do list in the next fifteen minutes? How can I be better today?
Among all of the unknowns regularly crossing my mind; careers, the climate crisis, the political state of the world, etc. etc., finding reliance in the most rudimentary parts of living has been the only comfort and the only way to move forward.
When I feel powerless or confused, finding one task to hone in on, as individually irrelevant as a computer pixel, gives clarity in a storm of uncertainty.
These pixels of both action and passion will maybe turn into something greater tomorrow, or maybe the day after and forcing myself to break things down and slow down gives me the energy to keep going instead of quivering at the insurmountable goals and fate hovering over us.
Being present
Collecting shells at the beach, making pointless games on long car rides, spending time creating bad artwork, taking photos for no exact reason, are all insignificant mundanes filling up our lives.
The bright and opaque nature of computer pixels can be mimicked in everyday life, not just in the goals and dreams we have, but by how we spend our days when not working.
Dilly-daddling on tasks with no greater purpose (outside of just momentary joy or distraction) eels pointless in a world so dedicated to self-improvement and goals– but this time fills our lives with color and liveliness in a way productivity or self-improvement is unable to.
The work we put into enjoying the isolated, boring moments like long car rides, trips to the grocery store, days spent alone, compiles into millions of moments of peace and romanticization. Making regular moments special for ourselves gives our life different hues to look back on, ones that would not be there if we don’t stop to paint them.
My effort to make my bed in the morning, my dedication to journaling when I am bored, letting a car merge in front of me, etc., feels pointless in any larger sense, but small certainties on myself establish trust in my character and on my ability to create a wonderful life.
When everything is changing and uncontrollable, the choice to spend time on the microscopic, unnecessary, and frivolous begin to function as tiny building blocks of the everyday.
I’ve drawn out this metaphor far too long, but I think there is more to be said on the importance of the “little things,”-- the moments we build with each other, the blessings we choose to acknowledge, the small ways we process the big stuff.
Uncertainty, change, and confusion is constant, but remembering the tiny, often overlooked pieces we do have control over gives us a unique form of power and shape over reality– just as a pixel sets the tone for an entire screen.
