Some thoughts don’t come as thoughts.

They come as images, headlines, posts, and videos repeated enough times until they begin to feel like something I should care about.

I think about this often now.

Maybe because I grew up in a place where information did not move the way it moves today. I was born in Cuba, in a country poor, delayed, and heavily controlled in many ways. We didn’t grow up with phones in our hands. There was no endless internet with constant feeds and, no algorithms whispering the next thing into our attention.

There was an old Russian television in the house with only a few channels.

That was our window; small and limited. Which sometimes was a bit frustrating because, as kids, we wanted to see endless cartoons, good movies, or discover what was out there.

I don’t romanticize that kind of scarcity. Not having access to information can also be a prison. But it does give you a strange perspective when you live long enough to see the opposite extreme.

To go from almost nothing being available, to almost everything being available, is difficult to explain. It’s incredible and breathtaking, yet in certain aspects, it can also be dangerous.

Because it can get to you. 

We now have access to an abundance of knowledge, diverse voices, visual content, varied opinions, numerous possibilities, and numerous distractions compared to any generation before us. However, amidst this vast array of information, a subtle transformation occurs.

We gradually become oblivious to the subtle ways our attention is being directed. It’s not an abrupt loss of focus, but rather a gradual shift in our perception. Our attention is subtly pulled, redirected, and guided, often without us even realizing it.We stop noticing how much of our attention is being guided.

It is funny in a sad way. We hold a device in our hands to see what is happening in the world, while the world directly in front of us keeps asking to be seen.

Sometimes all we need to do is raise our head.

But the feed is there.

Always ready.

Always offering another thing.

The feed is like a keen observer, always watching what catches our eye. It keeps tabs on our clicks, pauses, favorites, shares, frustrations, curiosities, comparisons, and how long we linger.

Then it gives us more of it.

That may sound simple, but over time, something crucial starts to fade. What initially captures our attention can gradually become indistinguishable from what truly deserves our focus.

That is where the real danger begins.

Algorithms don’t merely present us with content; they meticulously rank the world for us. They determine the order of appearance, the frequency of repetition, the perception of popularity, the sense of urgency, the perception of normalcy, the allure of desirability, and the persistence of content until it becomes deemed significant.

Everyone’s opinion starts to feel urgent.

Every trend starts to feel necessary.

Every argument starts to feel worth entering.

Every successful person can make your own life feel behind.

Every aesthetic starts to feel like identity.

Every viral thing starts to feel bigger than it really is.

And slowly, repetition begins to imitate meaning.

That line has been staying with me.

Repetition can imitate meaning.

Something doesn’t have to be profoundly true to feel genuine. It only needs to recur frequently. It just has to repeatedly present itself to us so it becomes familiar. And familiarity can begin to feel like reality.

This is not only about misinformation or politics or social media drama.

It is much closer than that. It touches how we see ourselves.

So In certain instances, I have posed these questions.

What has the internet made me compare myself to?

What did I start wanting only because I kept seeing it?

What did I start worrying about because everyone else was talking about it?

What parts of my life became smaller because the lives on my screen looked louder?

Because I have also caught myself comparing my life to people I don’t even know. I have bought things I didn’t really need. I have checked what others were doing while ignoring what needed attention in my own life.

And when I wasn’t doing well, it was worse.

Every part of my life felt smaller in comparison. Other people seemed ahead. Other artists seemed more successful. Other lives seemed better arranged. It became easy to look outward and feel behind instead of looking forward and taking the next step in front of me.

That is one of the strange effects of the feed.

It can make us feel informed while making us more restless.

It can make us feel connected while pulling us away from our own life.

It can make us feel inspired while quietly training us to compare.

As an artist, this can be particularly perilous.

You begin to observe what everyone else is doing, what style is currently trending, what garners likes, which types of tattoos are performing well, which content attracts attention, and which artists appear to be succeeding.

And if you are not careful, your own eye starts being trained by the crowd.

You begin to confuse visibility with value.

You begin to wonder if your work is enough because it is not being rewarded in the same way.

But art cannot grow only by watching what performs.

A tattoo does not become meaningful because the feed approved it. A drawing does not become better because it fits the trend of the month. A voice does not become more honest because it was shaped to be liked by strangers.

There is a difference between learning from the world and being shaped by its noise.

The hard part is knowing when one becomes the other.

I don’t want to make algorithms sound like some evil creature lurking behind every screen. They are not magical or supernatural. They are simply systems; a set of instructions that enable machines to make decisions about what to display next.

They are also useful in many ways.

They help us find music, books, directions, articles, tools, communities, and ideas we may never have discovered on our own. They help organize a world with too much information for one person to sort through alone.

But the same thing that helps us can also shape us.

A recommendation system is not asking:

What will make this person wiser?

What will help this person live better?

What does this person truly need?

Most of the time, it is asking something much simpler:

What will keep them here?

That question changes everything.

Because what keeps us engaged is not always what nourishes us.

Outrage keeps us engaged.

Fear keeps us engaged.

Desire keeps us engaged.

Comparison keeps us engaged.

Validation keeps us engaged.

Arguments keep us engaged.

Beauty keeps us engaged.

Drama keeps us engaged.

And once the system learns what holds us, it gives us more of it.

Not because it hates us.

Not because it knows us in a human way.

But because that is what it is built to do.

Over time, the feed can slowly form what we admire, what we fear, what we compare ourselves to, what we think success looks like, what we think beauty looks like, and what we think a life should look like.

That is the deeper problem.

Not distraction.

Formation.

The danger is not that the algorithm controls us like machines. The danger is softer than that. It keeps placing mirrors in front of us until we forget which reflection was ours.

A version of us begins to appear on the screen.

A profile made from our pauses, clicks, searches, likes, and habits.

Then the feed gives that version more of what it already wants.

And slowly, if we are not awake, we begin to become the person the feed has been feeding.

That is a strange thought.

We think we are exploring.

But often we are being returned to ourselves in a narrower form.

More of the same interests.

More of the same opinions.

More of the same fears.

More of the same desires.

More of the same anger.

More of the same identity.

And after a while, the world can start to feel smaller while we believe we are seeing more of it.

That may be one of the most subtle illusions of our time.

We have access to almost everything, but we are often shown more of what already keeps us looking.

This is why different people can live in completely different realities while holding the same device in their hands.

One person opens their phone and sees outrage.

Another sees beauty standards.

Another sees money.

Another sees politics.

Another sees fitness.

Another sees fear.

Another sees luxury.

Another sees failure.

Another sees proof that everyone agrees with them.

The feed becomes a room.

And after sitting in that room long enough, we start to forget that there are other rooms.

This matters because attention is not neutral.

What we repeatedly see changes what we notice.

What we notice changes what we think about.

What we think about changes what we care about.

And what we care about eventually shapes how we live.

That is why I keep returning to the same question:

How much of what I think matters actually came from me?

And how much was placed in front of me until I accepted it as important?

This is not an easy question to answer.

Because the feed does not always feel like manipulation. Most of the time it feels normal. Smooth. Convenient. Entertaining.

It comes through people we follow. Brands we like. Artists we admire. Friends. News. Jokes. Advice and even as an Inspiration.

It feels like culture.

It feels like life.

It feels like what everyone is talking about.

But sometimes what “everyone” is talking about is simply what the system has decided to make visible.

And visibility has power.

What is seen more often feels larger.

What is repeated starts to feel like true.

What is rewarded feels valuable.

What is ignored starts to feel unimportant, even when it may be the thing we need most.

Quiet work is rarely rewarded immediately.

Patience is not always entertaining.

Depth does not always perform.

Healing is not always visible.

Character does not go viral every day.

A real life is often too slow for the feed.

But that does not make it less valuable.

Sometimes the most important things in life are not loud enough to compete for our attention.

Health.

Presence.

A conversation.

Rest.

Craft.

Faith.

Family.

A walk.

A book.

A quiet hour.

The work no one sees.

The decision not to react.

The discipline to return to something that matters.

These things may not pull at us aggressively. They may not flash. They may not trend. They may not demand to be seen.

But they shape us, quietly and deeply overtime

Maybe that is why we have to become more protective of our attention.

Not paranoid or dramatic, not against technology.

Just awake.

Maybe the first act of freedom is noticing what has been asking for our attention.

Before reacting, we can pause.

Before sharing, we can ask if something is actually true, or just emotionally loud.

Before comparing, we can remember that we are seeing a fragment, not a whole life.

Before wanting, we can ask if the desire is ours, or if it was planted by repetition.

Before entering another argument, we can ask if it deserves a piece of our day.

We cannot control every image that enters the mind.

But we can become more careful with what we keep returning to.

That may be where choice begins again.

Not in rejecting the modern world.

But in refusing to let the feed become the only world we know.

The algorithm can show us many things.

It can suggest.

It can repeat.

It can rank.

It can tempt.

It can reflect back a version of ourselves.

But it should not become the final teacher of what matters.

Maybe the question is not only what the feed shows us.

Maybe the question is what it is teaching us to care about.

And whether we still know the difference.

The post What the Feed Teaches Us to Care About appeared first on THE FORGE JOURNAL.

Where has my attention been going lately?

Sometimes, I don’t even know.

It is strange how easy it is to lose a day without ever choosing where it went.

I find myself sitting in a work chair on a slow day, wanting to be productive. Or at least wanting to feel like I am. I dislike the feeling of going to work and having nothing to do. Those hours are meant to be used. They are meant to become something. After all, isn’t that why we go to work?

But on slow days, when no customers are walking in, time starts to feel strange. Empty. Almost wasted.

And quickly, guilt appears.

I start feeling like I should be doing something important. If the day is slow, then at least I should take advantage of that empty time before it flies away.

So I begin searching through my thoughts.

Should I write my next article for the Journal?

Should I work on something for my tattoo website?

Should I start a design project?

Should I read?

Should I brainstorm ideas?

That last one can be dangerous.

Sometimes brainstorming feels productive, but it can also become a hallway with too many doors. I spend the whole day walking through possibilities without entering any of them. Maybe for some people that’s easy. For me, not always.

So I reach for my phone.

At first, it is with good intention. I want to find an article to read. Or images for design inspiration. Or go through my article topics and see if something resonates.

Then somehow, through mysterious ways, I end up opening social media.

Not even with full attention.

Just scrolling.

Half there.

Half gone.

Twenty minutes later, I return to myself not exactly sure where I went.

Sometimes, a day disappears without being fully entered.

Some things don’t steal from us loudly. They take a little at a time.

And maybe that matters more than we admit.

Attention is not just a mental process. It is a kind of direction. It points us toward certain feelings, habits, desires, fears, and versions of ourselves.

It is how the mind spends life.

What we give attention to, we keep close.

So the question becomes simple, but uncomfortable:

What am I deciding to hold?

What do I keep giving attention to that gives nothing back?

And what am I slowly becoming because of what I keep looking at?

Give your attention to something long enough and it starts to change you. Old books, wise people, and life itself have been trying to tell us that forever. We begin to notice it more. We begin to understand it. We begin to care.

So why do I keep giving attention to things that don’t shape me in a good way?

It is not hard to see why we get pulled.

Everything is built to invite another second.

Another scroll.

Another opinion.

Another notification.

Another piece of noise dressed like something important.

And of course, this doesn’t mean we don’t deserve distraction. I don’t think we need to abandon technology, delete everything, and go live full monk mode in a cave somewhere. I like the internet. I use it. I find ideas there, images, references, books, articles, inspiration.

The problem is not always the tool.

Sometimes the problem is that we stop choosing.

We give our attention away before we realize we had given anything at all.

One of the costs I didn’t see at first was how fragmented my thoughts became. Less depth. Less stillness. Less presence. Days started to blur together. Then those days became weeks. Then months. And when you add them up, you realize how much life can be spent half-present, distracted by things that never truly gave anything back.

That feeling is strange.

You can do many things in a day and still feel like you never fully arrived inside it.

I work in busy environments. There is noise around me all the time. Some days I am up since early morning and don’t fully rest until midnight. Long days. Loud days. Productive days.

My attention is focused on the task in front of me because it has to be. Tattooing demands it. A line only needs a small moment of carelessness to lose its direction.

But then, in the free moments, I often try to escape.

I entertain my mind.

I scroll.

I check.

I distract myself from the tiredness.

And by the end of the day, even if I worked hard and did what I needed to do, there are times when I feel like I wasn’t fully present for any of it.

Like the day passed through me, but I didn’t fully pass through the day.

That is a different kind of loss.

Not dramatic.

Not obvious.

But real.

Because those distracted moments become distracted days. And those days, when gathered together, become pieces of life that were lived but not fully seen.

This is why attention matters.

Not because we need to be serious all the time.

Not because every second must be optimized.

That would be another kind of prison.

Attention matters because life is happening where attention is placed.

If I am always somewhere else, then where am I really living?

Lately, in the middle of noisy days, I have found a quiet kind of comfort in training myself to come back.

Not perfectly.

Not always.

But more often than before.

Sometimes it begins with stillness. Not dramatic silence. Not escaping the world. Just a small pause before reacting. Before scrolling. Before giving myself away again.

A breath.

A moment.

A return.

There is something powerful about realizing you have drifted and bringing yourself back. It feels like waking up inside your own life again. Like finding the path after wandering too far into the trees.

The present moment is simple, but it is not always easy to stay with.

That is where life is actually happening.

Everything outside of it can become noise if we live there too long. Memories, worries, imagined futures, endless possibilities, old conversations, digital feeds, things that already happened, things that may never happen.

The mind can build entire worlds and lose itself inside them.

But the body is always here.

The breath is here.

The room is here.

The work is here.

The person in front of you is here.

Maybe protecting attention begins there.

Not with a perfect system.

Not with deleting everything.

But with asking, quietly:

What deserves my looking?

What deserves my mind?

What deserves this piece of my life?

Maybe the question is not only what we pay attention to.

Maybe the deeper question is what our attention is quietly making of us.

Because in the end, where attention goes, life follows.

The post Where Your Attention Goes appeared first on THE FORGE JOURNAL.

There are days when the work feels simple.

And there are days when even starting feels heavier than it should.

We don’t always wake up ready to take on the world. In fact, I think there are many more days when we don’t. Days where it feels like a stone tied to our ankles, growing heavier with every step. And even so, we still have to carry it through the day.

Maybe that’s part of life.

When we fall into routine, doing the same things over and over, boredom eventually shows up. Sometimes purpose fades with it, and motivation quietly follows. Then we’re left asking ourselves a simple question:

What’s the point of all this?

Even writing this took me longer than it should have. I kept avoiding it. Putting it off. Waiting until I felt more inspired.

Then I remembered something.

If I don’t write, I’ll never become the writer I want to be.

The same way any skill is built, writing gets better through repetition. Through showing up. Through doing it again when the first attempt isn’t as good as you hoped it would be.

That’s when I started thinking about what remains when motivation leaves.

For me, it usually starts the same way.

I get up and go to the gym.

If I hadn’t done that consistently for years, I wouldn’t have the health or the physique I have today at thirty-five. Some mornings I’m sore. Some mornings I’m tired from accumulated work and long days. Some mornings I don’t feel like training at all.

But I still go.

I warm up. I stretch. I move.

And little by little, that heavy feeling starts to loosen its grip.

By the time I’m halfway through the workout, something has changed. My body wakes up. My mind follows. The same workout I didn’t want to do becomes the workout I’m glad I did.

Life often works that way.

Thankfully, I also love what I do for a living.

But there is something people don’t talk about enough.

When your passion becomes your work, the line between the two begins to blur. What once felt effortless can sometimes feel like an obligation. What you once did purely for enjoyment becomes something that must be done, day after day.

Even so, I still love making art.

And without showing up on the days I didn’t feel like it, my work would have never brought me where I am today. My technique wouldn’t have improved. My reputation wouldn’t have been built. The life I carry now would look very different.

That’s when I realized something.

What keeps me moving isn’t motivation.

At least not most of the time.

It’s discipline.

It’s purpose.

Motivation comes and goes like weather. Some days it’s there. Some days it isn’t. But purpose remains. It gives direction when feelings don’t.

Without it, the ship drifts.

And maybe that’s why so many of us feel lost from time to time.

Not because we’re incapable.

Not because we’re broken.

But because we’ve lost sight of where we’re trying to go.

Maybe this is what matters more than feeling ready.

Returning anyway.

Returning to what you love.

To the things that matter.

To living.

To creating.

To showing up anyway.

The post What Remains When Motivation Leaves appeared first on THE FORGE JOURNAL.