Reader question:

Please explain "shiny object" in this sentence: This one is all about priority, and it is so applicable to all of us in this amazingly distracting “Era of the Shiny Object.”

My comments:

This is the era of the shiny object?

Well, that's an apt description. Today, in the age of social media, our attention is caught in the moment, by what's trending, what's in topic. And the moment is fleeting. The trending topic changes by the week, by the day or hour. The "in" topic for now may be "out" the next day, even the next hour.

Anyways, under the circumstance, our priorities also change accordingly as we try to keep up with what's currently trending and popular.

And what's currently trending, what's currently popular, what's currently fashionable, what's currently "on", what's currently the "in" thing to do is the shiny object, something we're all attracted to.

Or distracted by.

The shiny object as an idiom, can be learned in association with the proverb "all that shines is not gold." Gold nuggets, however little in size, glisten in the sunlight. If you're a gold digger on the bank of a river, for example, your eyes will constantly by attracted by pebbles that glisten and shine. But alas, since not all glistening objects are gold, your time and effort might be wasted while you go for all the shiny stuff. Maybe you should dig deeper into the ground, as a gold digger do, but you're distracted by all the shiny objects on the surface of the earth.

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