fun fact: procrastination happens to animals too. it’s a naturall thing.
animal equivalents for scrolling tumblr include: - hamsters starting to wash their faces in inaproppriate situations - hyenas stopping everything and starting to dig holes in the ground.
- seagulls starting to ruffle their feathers instead of doing important things
this happens for two reasons:
1) an animal is in the situation where none of the standard scenarious it has are fitting, so it does the next best thing (example: hamsters were put in a vibrating bowl, they couldn’t run or attack, so in about a minute they stopped everything and started washing their faces.)
2) an animal has two conflicting instincts fighting for dominance, so the third one, usualy suppressed by them, kicks in. (example: when two hyenas meet at the border of their territories, they have an instinct to protect their own territory conflict with an instinct not to cross someone else’s. they don’t know if they need to attack or leave, so both start digging holes in the ground. example: a seagull sitting on the nest needs to protect her children, but also has to go get some food. instead a seagull settles for ruffling her feathers for two hours.)
with humans it’s usually the second reason. (example: I’m tired and I want to go to sleep, but I should write an essay for tomorrow. both these things are important, so I’m procrastinating them by writing this post.)
