Mind Over Media
The impact of technology is as fascinating as it is scary. The world continues to become more connected than ever before, but the number of disconnected humans seems to grow at an exceedingly fast pace. Addiction to social media is conquering us at an alarming rate, and leaving us with digitally-induced emptiness and a world overtaken by a virtual reality. In this post, I share my thoughts on how we can retain control of our minds while staying relevant and with the times.
Smartphone Addiction
The alarm goes off. I get up, unplug the phone from the charger, and take it with me to the bathroom. Here comes the first round of going to Instagram, Facebook, and through my email to catch up on missed updates. At this point, Facebook has learned the types of videos I like to watch, so I get stuck in a chain of watching videos of Gordon Ramsay tearing people a new one, followed by an assortment of viral pranks as I sip my morning coffee. The day beings as I step into a series of meetings and do my work. Interestingly, I find myself back on the phone during brief breaks scrolling mindlessly through the same crap over, and over, and over again. The day goes by, and then it’s time to get some sleep— a final browse of the delicious digital nectar and then off I go to Lala-land.
Holy shit, right? How many of you tend to get stuck in a similar vicious cycle? Our phones have become a direct extension of our bodies, practically a digital limb. It is always in our hand, in our pocket, beside us on the table and when it isn’t, we fall into a panic of WHERE IS MY PHONE?!. Sometimes we feel a phantom vibration in our pocket, when no notifications have come in. It may not come as a surprise, but this is not healthy. Adults who would typically preach how bad phones are have also succumbed and joined the zombie club. Our attachment to digital devices is making us dumber, less comfortable with being in our own minds, and damaging our relationships.
I've caught myself in this cruel cycle more than I’d like to admit, and I consider myself as a person with a fair level of self-control. Although I haven’t been able to fully conquer the challenge of digital addiction, I’ve come across breakthroughs that helped me be in better control. Here is a little bit about what has worked for me in the past.
1) Banish the phone from the room where you sleep, and replace it with a basic alarm-clock. When we remove the phone from our bedroom, we take a step closer to building an environment that our bodies have naturally evolved to live in. Having read a slew of articles, studies, and trying different methods, I can attest to the positive benefits of this practice. To learn more about the benefits of this tactic, I recommend reading this article by verywellhealth.
2) Put the phone on airplane mode, or in your bag when it’s time to do anything that requires focus, concentration, or creativity. When your phone is live or easily accessible, it is far too tempting to constantly look at it waiting for that notification-induced dopamine rush. When you cut yourself off, you are savings yourself the energy that it takes to re-engage with the tasks that require your attention. As simple as this tactic may seem, it has played a critical role in my ability to make the best use of my limited study-time throughout my undergrad.
3) Similar to point #2, get rid of your phone when it’s time to socialize. Whether we are in a formal meeting, hanging out with a group of friends, or spending time with family— there is no reason for us to be doing anything else. It blows my mind how many people live through the lens of their device (including myself sometimes). If you wish to take pictures, consider having one person bring their phone and share the pictures with the group at the end of what you’re doing, or at least have the phone on airplane mode and tuck it away after capturing the moment you wanted to.
Takeaways: You may have noticed that my propositions have a consistent theme of building a fence around the problem. As useful as our mobile devices have become, they have also grown to be a sinister tumour in the fabric of society. Consider excluding your phone from parts of your life where it does not belong. To read more about smartphone addiction, check out this post by HelpGuide.
Social Media
Picture edited, caption written, ‘Post Picture’ is clicked. As the day goes on, I check my phone for the glorious feeling of seeing the pop-up of ‘your friend liked your picture’. When a picture gets good attention and lots of likes, I feel great. On the other hand, when a picture doesn’t get much love I think ‘well that sucks… I guess people didn’t really care much for this picture’.
This may not sound too bad, and I would hazard a guess that many of you have felt similarly when using Facebook, Instagram, etc. What is bad is when self-worth, identity, and confidence is dictated by digital validation. Unfortunately, social media is typically the ‘gateway-drug’ to smartphone addiction, and the biggest victims that fall prey to this digital-enslavement are the youngsters who were conditioned to have social media as a key component of their social development.
After resisting joining the crowd for a large portion of my younger years I eventually succumbed to social media. Initially, I joined the digital community to avoid missing out on pictures, events, and things that my friends were doing— classic FOMO (fear of missing out). My engagement with social media continued to be cautious, and remained as what I would consider ‘tame’. Although I can’t say that I ever let social media get to my head, I certainly got sucked in by crap like FarmVille and Zynga poker on Facebook which led to a pivotal moment when I highly considered getting rid of social media altogether. It was killing my time, focus, and I felt like it served no functional utility. I decided to stay, and the decision came from understanding the utility I was going to let is serve: nothing more than a scrapbook for myself that others could choose to enjoy. When it comes to this topic, there are three aspects that I have been pondering:
1) Responsible use of social media. Have you ever considered why you’re drawn to participating in social media? Many people don’t, which I think creates several issues. I’ve witnessed people get severely enthralled and negatively impacted by getting bullied by trolls, resorting to absurd posts to seek attention, and attaching their self-worth to their digital popularity. Thus, I strongly believe that the first step to the responsible use of social media is understanding its utility for you, and taking control over why you’re on it. The utility is going to be different for everyone, so I will point out a few common pitfalls that I think everyone should avoid instead:
Keep your private life to yourself. This includes problems, intimate relationships, and content that can cripple your career.
Don’t engage in online disputes and chat-box conflicts.
Understand that people only share the highlights of their life. Don’t let it get to your head.
2) Social Media and Mental Health. There are countless studies that link the use of social media to a decline in long-term mental health. The responsible use of social media can help curb the negative effects, but I believe it is also important to understand why it has a negative impact. Instead of repeating what is already out there, I encourage you to look up the impact social media has on mental health. To get you started, Psychology Today has a good post by Billi Gordon that outlines some of these issues.
3) Our responsibility to the future generations. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both limited screen time for their kids, and set other restrictions (source). I’ve witnessed some efforts in schools, but we are far from where we need to be in terms of equipping the younger generations in handling the poisonous aspects of social media. Emerging teenagers are a particularly vulnerable group to these challenges because they grow up following ‘influencers’ and seeing picture-perfect lives that are not attainable. Awareness is on the rise thanks to people like Essena O’Neill who chose to quit her ‘instagram star’ life to form a movement that urges youngsters to embrace their authentic selves. When it comes to toddlers, this is a particularly important issue because smartphones and tablets are extremely powerful pacifiers, making it easy for parents to unintentionally develop harmful habits during the critical years of their child’s development. I am not an expert on the issue, but I expect that the impact of social media and the digital world will have a tremendous influence on the future generations. Here is what I think we can do:
Teach kids how to responsibly handle social media from the moment they become users
Limit screen time exposure during formative years
Communicate the importance of authenticity early and frequently
New state-of-the-art technologies will continue getting better at stealing our attention. If we fail to develop healthy habits and means of resistance, our minds will slowly slip away from being our own. I hope you choose to think about these issues, and keep them front of mind — out future as a society depends on it.
