Don't forget to keep your eyes open - to see the problem, but also potential solutions 😊
Lead Innovation Lab MILK. | Founder beworm | Keynote Speaker | Design4Recycling & Recycling Technologies
**Spot the Differences!** Why are we capable of unseeing what we don’t want to see? I’m currently on a trip in an around Bali, my first long-distance vacation in years. The goal of this trip was to detach and recover from two very difficult years, but it has turned into a reminder. I was aware that Indonesia faces issues with littering and inadequate waste management, but I’ve never witnessed a major contributing factor to our waste problem as clearly as I have here: the ability to unsee. According to Wikipedia, selective perception is „the tendency to overlook and quickly forget stimuli that cause emotional discomfort.” This is particularly evident when visiting Bali’s “Instagrammable” spots. I saw people proposing next to piles of trash that were cut out of the photo, young Europeans (that can’t blame it on a lack of education) happily swimming around floating PET bottles, and cows munching on garbage from the trees. But what surprised me most was how my own perception shifted in just a few days. Whenever I lingered in one place, the initial shock seemed to fade. After spending nearly a week at the same polluted beach, I found myself thinking, “Maybe it’s not that bad” by day five. With the biological instinct of adaptation kicking in, it felt possible to accept and ignore the surroundings, despite my background and the years I’ve spent on this issue. That was the moment were I needed to remind myself that selective perception is a dangerous trap. It helps you to handle your own reality, but it doesn’t change the shared one. So how can we make sure that we see what we need to see? That we do look up and do look down? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Ps. The difference is that the photos were taken from two different angles.