Digital Rabbitholes

How do we get anything done?

Honestly.

This morning’s rabbithole:

Saw intriguing album cover posted on friend’s Instagram account.

Searched for album on iTunes.

Got frustrated (we’re so spoiled now) when iTunes failed to deliver.

Googled artist/album.

Found artist on SoundCloud.

Turned up album after several searches.

Prompted to listen via SoundCloud app.

Had to download SoundCloud app.

Took a couple of stabs at remembering my Apple ID to okay downloading of SoundCloud app.

Succeeded!

Prompted to create SoundCloud account.

Created SoundCloud account.

Probably failed to add SoundCloud account info to LastPass.

Connected Amazon Echo Plus to phone to play album.

Experimented with adjusting volume on Amazon Echo Plus via phone and voice command.

Listened to album.

Sigh.

I don’t really mind having to do all this in order to listen to an artist new to me, whom I’d be unlikely to find out about or be able to hear otherwise. It’s almost an age of miracles. What worries me is how much time I (we) now spend doing this kind of thing every day as I go about my (our) workaday digital rounds. Multiply the steps above by 10 or 100 and…it’s a lot of time and a lot of rabbitholes to disappear down instead of reading or writing or thinking. Or listening. If you see a way out of this meta-rabbithole, let me know in the comments.