Digital Addiction.
I have been aware of the negative impact of being overexposed to media bombardment and distraction for a long time.
Stephen and I haven’t had a telly for more than ten years, and my reading list for the last decade must be knocking on several hundred, so I wouldn’t consider myself addicted to digital devices. However, after two years of feeling like I was being sucked back into digital distraction, I decided to ‘reset’ myself with a total digital detox for a week, solo on a remote island on the West coast of Scotland!
Years ago, I was inspired by the ‘four hour work week’ by Tim Ferris, and although I don’t have any desire to spend time sunning myself in a bikini on a desert island – frankly, the world doesn’t need that! – I did take on board many of the superb work efficacy suggestions highlighted in the book.
The book – and many more that followed – opened my eyes to a new generation of entrepreneurs and leaders who consider their optimised health and highly trained ability to focus on deep work their number one asset.
I might not have achieved a four-hour workweek. Still, I have learned to value my attention and developed proactive practices such as disabling all notifications, only responding to email in allocated time slots, and developing my capacity for concentration through meditation and other techniques. These practices have allowed me to free time to work on unprofitable but incredibly important projects for the regeneration of our planet and find time to cook healthy food, balance family time and bring up three highly resilient kids.
Managing our attention is a highly overlooked skill, and it’s costing us in many ways. Our relationships, work ethic, mood, stress levels and ability to focus on a task to completion have been seriously eroded.
Social media companies know the value of your attention which is why the so-called ‘mind hacking’ industry is now worth approximately seven trillion dollars!
You might think of being distracted by technology as a soft addiction that is easily overcome, but habitually using technology lights up the same part of the brain as when we are addicted to alcohol or cocaine!
Unless you actively take control, you are being hardwired to depend on technology! And our kids are most vulnerable of all.
Behind every ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ are teams of the world’s best technology engineers and psychologists working out how to best hack your attention. Your hyper-personalised feed is ever-present, luring you with exactly what they know – through clever algorithms – you cannot resist. They want you to stay on their platform, following the breadcrumbs to what they want to sell you or are paid to influence you with. It’s as impressive as it’s sinister! Meanwhile, you think you are just checking what our friends are up to – completely unaware!
You might think you are getting these social platforms for free, but you get free access to them because YOU are the product, and you are worth a fortune to them! Interestingly, the two industries that use the term ‘user’ to describe their customers are; drug dealers and technology companies!
But unlike being addicted to heroin, where you can stay away from your drug dealer and the places that trigger you to use, we addicted technology users are surrounded – it’s relentless!
During my childhood, the extent of my technological distraction was a cassette player, four TV channels, a telephone that required me to dial a number at an agreed time to talk to a friend, a calculator, a Casio watch and an occasional postcard if on holiday! It was no contest – I spent my ‘attention’ on plying in the woods or galloping the countryside on the back of a horse.
Our modern existence is swarming with technological inputs; most of us work on a computer, receive emails, notifications, have on-demand unlimited TV, computer games, drive past electronic billboards, have the radio on, are never far from our iPhone, constant texts, WhatsApp’s, Instagram messages, tweets, push notifications from apps and the constant allure of google – the gateway to the world! Even our cars tell us how to drive and when to take a break!
Physiologically our bodies and minds haven’t adapted to the tidal wave of technology that has washed over us in the last 25 years. As a result, it’s making us sick, depressed, ineffective and inefficient.
We are nearly ALL addicted to some degree. There’s no shame in it, but it needs to be proactively managed. Just because everyone does something doesn’t mean we should all give in and go along with it.
We are experiencing a shifting baseline in what constitutes an acceptable level of focus and attention. Frankly, nearly everyone who is regularly distracted by technology is performing at some level of mediocre.
Dr Richie Davidson, a neuroscientist who created the field of contemplative neuroscience, hooked up some of the Dali Lama’s monks to study the effects of meditation on the brain. What he found was that through dedicated practice, their brains could be moulded to be able to focus to exceptional levels;
“What we saw in these individuals, not a burst of gamma, but a long duration [of activity] for minutes while they were meditating, which is crazy,” Davidson said. “This had never been seen in a human brain before.” Typically in an “untrained mind,” Davidson said, a burst of activity would last for about one second, but the monks could sustain it.
“And [they] can turn it on pretty much at will,” he said. “Any of us can have it and we may not be able to sustain it, that’s the difference … a thought will come into our mind and we’ll get lost in it for a few minutes, and so the ability to sustain it I think really requires much more practice.”
Top entrepreneurs and leaders are well aware of the digital distraction issue and go out of their way to proactively manage this habitual lure. It’s even said that Steve Jobs wouldn’t let his own kids have an iPad!
So how do we mere mortals learn to live with technology and successfully limit the many negative impacts of being plugged into the technological system 24/7?
Like any addiction, rule number one is; to recognise you have some level of addiction. ‘I am no longer completely in control of this situation, and I will take steps to regulate it so it doesn’t take over my life.’
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Jiddu Krishnamurti
Put your phone in a drawer out of sight, switch off your notifications and email popups, commit to a cut off time for technology in the evening, ban your phone from the bedroom, and read an actual book!
Our ability to clear space for deep thinking and flow states helps us build the capacity for focus and allows us to step between stimulus and response. Nature, of course, has a considerable part to play. Digital distraction removes us from the natural rhythm of life, which compounds the issue with artificial light and electromagnetic bombardment, making us sleep-deprived, more stressed, and even more likely to zone out with yet more technology!
Make a plan and start with your evening, not your morning. Shut down and get to bed, tech-free and in a cool dark room. When you wake, instead of checking your notifications, why not journal the boundaries you intend to put in place with a notepad and pen.
Build longer and longer periods of nature-based reflection time and meditation into your life. For example, leave your phone behind when walking in nature and build up your capacity for being away from technology for prolonged periods.
And this is exactly why I ended up on a remote island on the West Coast of Scotland – to reset my relationship with technology.
Many of our Wilderculture projects are in wild places, and working on these sites can involve having prolonged periods away from technology or instant communication. Still, few are as cut off from the modern world as Wilder Carna – our first-ever Wilderculture project.
On this occasion, the Island’s two off-grid holiday cottages were vacant. So after being dropped off by boat (by Andy, the Island manager) and accompanied by my Jack Russel Joss, I spent the week on the Island. No internet access, iPhone (apart from once a day from the top of the hill to send an ‘i’m safe’ message to Stephen), and I limited myself to the open fire and candlelight – no electricity. I even took the opportunity to fast for four days to give my body a complete break.
It was an incredible experience of retraining my brain to be okay without constant inputs and overcoming the guilt of allowing myself not to work or be ‘productive’. Time went SO slowly because there wasn’t anything to punctuate the day, and after a day of my brain chattering and clattering like a speeding train, my mind eventually settled into – calm silence!
I spent days watching our ‘wee wild herd’ of cows graze, observing the wildlife, journaling, and simply gazing at the weather flowing over the hills and the tide washing in and out over the beach.
It felt like after years of ‘binge eating’ information, I finally had allowed my mind some time to digest it! Since my return home, I have re-established some firm technology boundaries, and my focus, mood and stress levels have hugely improved.
I would highly recommend taking technology breaks to anyone. Perhaps you could have a digital free Sunday or pre-plan a camping weekend with no phone? Once you have managed other people’s expectations, it’s not that hard and absolutely worth the effort.
You might just be able to hear yourself think!
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