You’re sitting at work doing computer tasks. Continuously attending to every beep and vibrate that goes off on your cell phone. Back to the computer. back to the automatic check the phone habit: in the order of tik toc, instagram, snapchat, gmail, messages… then. back to doing computer tasks. The process repeats itself. allowing no time for mindfulness. no time for a deep breath. depleting all brain glucose from rapidly switching back and forth between tasks, heart rate elevated, short breaths and anxiety from the idea that we haven’t attended to every notification or seen every post. Programming your brain for low attention span. Programming your brain to operate with anxiety when you have a moment of “down time.”
Above is what something we have to be aware of in this technology age. There are LITERALLY 1,000’s of engineers working for tech companies and doing everything in their power to work with psychologists and psychoanalysis’s to learn how they can manipulate their platforms to make it a automatic response for you to check tik toc, instagram, and Facebook every time you go to sit on the toilet… every time you’re standing in line at the grocery store… every time you SIT IN YOUR CAR AT A RED LIGHT.
Sounds brainwashing doesn’t it?
Again, we must be aware or we fail victim to being TECH ZOMBIES. These are what EVERY TECH COMPANY WANTS YOU TO BE. They want to do all the thinking for you. they want to shorten consumer attention span so you’re more likely to click things you never would’ve previously. Slowly and slowly, daily and daily, programming your brain to not value anything that is longer than 5 seconds.
Again, don’t be a tech zombie.
Next time you go to grab your cell phone, ask yourself, “what is the purpose for grabbing my cell phone.” watch how much more productive you become when you actually stay present in your daily tasks and then take separate breaks to attend to the cell phone.
Multitasking can be very beneficial. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of multitasking. AT THE RIGHT TIME. key word: RIGHT TIME… its okay to do laundry, while cleaning the apartment, while baking chicken in the oven… We paired a few things together. obviously, as humans we need to multitask frequently to get everything we want to get done.
The question is: how often are you multitasking? Are you doing it so often that you’re burned out mentally and exhausted so much that you can’t simply enjoy a valuable part of the day?
Don’t get me wrong, we all need down time. But take a look at what down time for a TECH ZOMBIE looks like: pop on Netflix. scroll through social media 10 different times on the hour, do some work emails. attend to every text message. oh dont forget, eating dinner at the same time. all the way up until we’re ready to fall asleep.. but we can’t fall asleep because our eyes have been blasted with LED light for the past 2 hours, our mind’s our racing because we just scrolled through so much content that our brain is literally still processing the material. and we wonder why we’re exhausted and can’t get a good nights rest.
Again, multitasking can be healthy. Multitasking is necessary. It’s apart of my every day life. But what type of multitasking are you doing and what time of the day are you doing it at? I work with teenagers, so I get to observe some of the habits that teenagers have. I notice some pretty common trends related to hyperactivity and loss of focus. a strong urge to grab the cell phone literally every 2 minutes, and not being able to pay attention to something for more than 2 minutes at a time.
Again, don’t be a tech zombie. Quality moments become less quality depending on how much time is delegated toward multiple different tasks. When it comes to interaction with humans in person and experiences created in person, don’t let rapid task switching become the norm. don’t be the parent that allows cell phones at the dinner table. Don’t be the parents that watches Netflix while every kid next to you has a tablet in their hands and not a single word being said to each other until its a “goodnight.” What will be remembered about those moments?
Back to the notifications on the cell phone. watch how much more productive you become when your email, messages, and social media are silenced. Yes, I keep phone calls on because it should be agreed upon that a phone call takes priority over a message (in most cases). Don’t be that individual that expects your friends to text back in 2 minutes or it starts a huge fight and resentment built up.. last time I checked, a text message never has a expectation for length of time to reply? I know there are circumstances that are urgent, so yes we are going to have to reply quickly. But if someone really really needed your assistance, it would be agreed upon that they would make that clear over text, or they would simply call you… we’re all involved in our day to day lives. working.hobbies. family time. friend time. you name it. who is to say that a beep, vibrate or notification on a cell phone deserves precedence over your in the moment special real life time that you’re living?
In this tech age, we create the perception in our heads that “we’re missing out,” if we don’t check our cell phones. let me be brutally honest with some of you: If you don’t need your cell phone for a full time job or generating income, and your screen time is hours upon hours, what are you really doing with your time? what could you be doing with your time is the question?
We’re emotional creatures. we grab things when we’re bored. we grab things when we’re anxious. we grab things when we’re angry. we do this out of COMFORT. I can speak from perspective that when you RESIST grabbing something just for the sake of being comfortable, you are free. You are the CEO. You are in control of your future. We must learn to be in control of our response and grab things out of INTENTION AND PURPOSE.
Don’t believe me? Lots of people tell me they feel lots of presence and calm when they’re with me. sure im goofy, sure im a bit hyper. but I don’t lose my grounded self… This is only due to practicing presence. what is practicing presence? its being able to simply be with oneself and fighting the desire to grab something. to be able to sit in boredom and just simply breathe. To enjoy your own presence simply out of being thankful to be alive. to sit in ones thoughts and enjoy the ability to filter through them. I create plans and schedules and I simply execute them. as much as I can stay present and focused on the activity at hand, I notice the more quality the work and experience becomes.
Am I saying that we all have to practice being like a monk? no. I’m saying, once again, don’t let the technology age make you believe for one second that you’re missing out on anything. Because you could be missing out on: studying for a new certification to improve your career, staying more present for experiences with your lovers/family, staying more present for a friend when they just need someone to hear them, staying more present for working out, staying present for your animals at home that look forward to your attention each night when you get home, staying present for errands and activities that we deem “stressful” which actually become less stressful when we stay present with them.
This article could go lots longer than it already is. Try turning 99% of your notifications off and see what results come of it. At first, you’re going to feel funny. you’re going to catch yourself grabbing your phone automatically without you even realizing it. it will bring to light how much of an automatic response it is. Automatic responses are okay. BUT FOR WHAT PURPOSE?
Be aware. be far from average. understand why we do what we do.
THE_HUMAN_EXPERIMENT1993 