We need to talk about... technology

In the last few years before I left the classroom, I used to joke with A Level students caught sneaking a look at their phones during a lesson. ‘Try to wean yourself off for something less addictive’ I would say ‘like cocaine.’ I would only say this with sixth formers and only after a few months so I was sure they got my sense of humour. It was a joke, but many a true word is said in jest. Yet it’s easy to joke at others expense but harder to examine ourselves. Like many people, I too am starting to assess my relationship with technology.

Counting the cost: time and blood pressure

Our phones, and technology in general, have elements that are addictive. We get a tiny dopamine hit each time we scroll. It is part of the design. It is no accident that many Tech CEOs are strict in terms of the access to their products allowed by their own children. (see this Forbes article). We spend a considerable amount of time staring at our mini-screens, as a break from our computer screens – and that’s before we get into TV screens. For those of us who have a certain fruit-based brand of phone it can be sobering to see how long we have spent on the device each week – it is estimated that most of us are 2 hours + per day, and it is double that for millennials + Gen Z. We keep saying we don’t have the time for all sorts of things and yet perhaps we have all the time we need, if only we were using it differently.

What exactly are we doing as we scroll? One thought offered by Tommy Dixon in his challenging essay about the extreme online era is that we are numbing – avoiding our big questions, our traumas, deep thoughts or boredom as we gently soothe ourselves with our scrolling. Except we’re not really soothed. It is called ‘doomscrolling’ for a reason; grim news won’t change just because we refresh our feed every 5 minutes. Our devices have also got to know us; it knows what we react to and engage with, so it gives us more of this content. Studies show that people engage more when they are angry, so ‘rage-baiting’ material works, just think about how certain media organisations frame their headlines. In fact the chance is that if I have a different political outlook or worldview to you, I am seeing opposite material to you. So we rage at the imagined online cariacature of each other rather than meeting in real life to discover where we might have some common ground.

Concentration and Memory

In addition to the time wasted and the blood pressure raised, there is growing evidence that concentration and memory are also affected. The issue of concentration levels in the Internet Age was first raised over 10 years ago in the book ‘the shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains’ by Nicholas Carr. Studies have suggested that even the presence of our mobile phone nearby affects how we concentrate – part of our brain is distracted subconsciously waiting for our beloved to ping.

And we are struggling to remember things too. Being able to look up information at a click means we are outsourcing our memory – the internet or even a Sat Nav is like our external hard drive – we don’t need to go to the bother remember actual things in our brain or owning a map unless we sit an exam or find ourselves going in the wrong direction on an unfamiliar road. Or is it just me that can google something one day but be unable to remember the information the next day?

Mixed Blessings

Please don’t misunderstand me. Technology has its benefits. Email is faster than phoning or writing a letter. Social networks are a great way of keeping in touch with people we might otherwise lose contact with. I have written about potential benefits of technology in education – even if I am now a little more cautious! As with every human invention, we need to put it in its place. Cars are great; they make travel easier but we need rules of the road, speed limits, and agreed conventions of what is or is not good driving.

We’re in the early stages with smartphones but we’re probably ready for some regulation or reflection on boundaries. This has started to happen regarding children; Australia has banned social media for under 16s and many schools in the UK now have strict rules about phones in school for all the above reasons. But if something is on balance harmful for children, why should we think it suddenly becomes good for us? There is also the issue of modelling – our children learn their screen habits from us. Is there anything sadder than seeing a family outing where children play unnoticed as parents scroll? What example are we the grown ups setting to the next generation?

Waking Up

As I write, I am reminded of Theoden, the King of Rohan, in Lord of the Rings. We meet him as a weak, distracted individual lost in his thoughts and staring into space – not too dissimilar to commuters on trains staring at their phones. Theoden is under a spell as the aptly named Grima Wormtongue whispers into his ear. Once the spell is broken, he awakes and the real Theoden, the decisive King and warrior returns. Just like Theoden, when I scroll less, I find myself more aware of my surroundings and the people in it. My thinking feels clearer – which is no surprise – I am not having to take in so much information. Tommy Dixon writes ‘with constant stimulation, you never have time to hear your thoughts or feel your feelings. In a world afraid of quiet, it is easy to get lost.’

It is good to be quiet, to think, and to reflect on who you are and where you are going. In the Bible, Jesus often withdrew by himself to think and pray. Sometimes the crowds followed him and there was no peace. One of my aims for the year is at some point to have some sort of retreat where I do the same. My wife, perhaps eager to send me away, googles a few places – they have wi-fi, she says helpfully. That’s the issue: it would be useful for research if I’m writing but is it also one of the things I’m hoping to get away from? Just as the crowds followed Jesus, so too we tend to seek time away and absent mindedly slip our phones into our pockets. We get away from it all and yet manage to take it with us.

Sabbaths and Boundaries

So what now? A complete break from technology isn’t realistic but certainly reduction and some boundaries. Most days there is some need for a phone or other screens but how can I manage it?  In my brief guide to email I wrote about scheduling checking of email 2 or 3 times a day. Could a similar approach work with social media? When I was in a regular teaching job, I never had my works email on my phone. We can also remove certain Apps from phones or iPads, notifications can be silenced. There is even an App/device called ‘Get Brick’ which locks down your more distracting Apps. Where there is a will there is always a way – and that’s the problem -  whether there is actually a will.

Then there is ‘a digital Sabbath’ – one day each weekend, the phone and iPad are away for the day. I’ve dabbled at this but not consistently. When you try it, it is odd. You notice your absent-minded urges to scroll for things. It is a habit just like any other – remember the dopamine. Then after a while, there seems to be more bandwidth available and you notice your surroundings, the people you are with, and you start to have deeper and more creative thoughts. Perhaps I should do this more, yet part of me is resistant. 

Ultimately it is about who or what is in charge. Technology can be a great servant, but a lousy master. Perhaps it is for us as the grown ups to take charge of our little electronic children. In ‘the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry’ John Mark Comer advocates a time in the early evening where we ‘put our tech to bed’ and engage with those around us and wind down. We become more human, less zombie-like and it may even improve our sleep.

We may all come to different conclusions about what our boundaries should be but what's more important is being conscious and aware of our behaviour.  

What’s inside spills out

There’s another benefit from having digital boundaries. It’s not just about the persons in real life that I’m missing; it’s also about the person I’m becoming. In one viral meme, a professor asks why coffee spilled out of your cup when someone knocked into you. In one sense it was because they bumped into you, but equally it was coffee that spilled because that was what was in the cup. It’s the same with us; what is in us will spill out particularly when we are under pressure. The more rubbish you put in, the more likely you are to get rubbish out.

Paul has a similar thought in the Bible in Philippians 4 when he encourages his readers ‘whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure…  think about these things.’ I don’t know about you but much of my online content is negative, angry or just trying to sell me things I don’t really want or need. An algorithm steers me and in mindlessly scrolling for hours on end, I am relinquishing control of the wheel, not even consciously choosing what I think about. I want to make my own decisions about what I read and listen to; to have some control over the person that I am becoming. If the quality of what goes in is improved, then hopefully better things will spill out of me!