I write a lot about mindfulness, which is why the irony of this post isn't lost on me. If you're reading this, you almost certainly own at least a computer, cell phone, or tablet (and maybe all three). They entertain us, educate us, and can bring us almost any physical object we desire if our credit line is high enough. I'd be lost without my devices, and I'm sure you may fall in the same boat. But, as much different as our world looks now than it did 100 years ago, it hasn't changed that much.
Nature is still here. Friendships are still here. Love is still here. Taste, sound, sight, they're all still here. Adventures, music, food, they're all still here.
But do we ever REALLY experience them anymore?
Sure, sometimes we're completely present. We have conversations, eat in restaurants (well, we used to), and take walks. But most of the time our cell phones are still visible, or nearby. We may even take them out to fully capture the experience with a picture. It's very rare that we're completely unplugged for more than an hour a day (and I'm more guilty of this than anyone).
A quote I saw the other day really hit the nail on the head for me: we are scrolling ourselves out of awareness.
So much of our day is spent browsing, watching, or reading. On our devices. Away from the rest of the world, which has been there waiting all along. We tilt our heads up and realize a half hour passed, a half hour that we'll never get back. Let's imagine that we use an hour of every day (VERY low estimate for the majority of us, I have an excuse since I run my business off of my phone but my daily phone screentime is around 8 hours/day). 365 hours equals 15.2 days of time per year spent on your phone. If you do twice that, that's a whole month of mindlessness. Double that is two months worth of our twelve months out of every year (and four hours isn't a high estimate for many of us). These numbers are staggering as I'm calculating them, and should serve as a wakeup call for all of us (myself included) to stop spending so much time away from the life that's happening while we scroll.
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. When we're old and wrinkled, I doubt we'll look back and wish we spent more time engulfed in our technology, away from our friends, family, and the nature that surrounds us all. Will we wish we more in tune with the news, Hive, and Instagram? Or will we wish we talked with our loved ones more, listened to the birds, and took more nature walks? There's nothing wrong with being tuned in, but in the end it will matter how much we tuned out.
"A Single Seed" is my attempt to get out one idea every day that I've learned or accumulated over the years, with the hope that it may stick in someone else's memory bank as well. The idea may be related to fitness, business, life, or philosophy, but I think you'll find that many can change domains if you wish them to. With each seed planted, a new life awaits.
Image credit: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/923362
I will admit to being addicted to my devices! It's how I get my news, entertainment and social media. I have news sources sending me daily updates. I visit all of my social sites via my phone, connect with my various writing groups on Discord via my phone, blog daily on Actifit via my phone, etc.
Funny, maybe it's because I'm a little older and grew up without these devices, but I feel like I have to remind myself to take a break from gardening and other things I'm doing to get on my phone and keep up with everything going on a few times a day!
I think it's possible to use our devices in a sensible way, and use them to help find balance or do certain things more efficiently.
For example, one of my favorite things is Actifit. My Fitbit (or phone for some people) tracks my steps. I take daily walks, hikes or bike rides and capture pictures of meadows, parks, sunsets, flowers and my dog romping along on trails! And then every night I log into the app on my phone and write a short post about how I got my steps and add some pictures from the day, which enables me to post daily - no matter how busy I am. Also, I listen to books on Audible while I'm walking or hiking. So I feel like my phone lets me optimize my time.
I really like your point that if it takes us away from the real world and the great things happening all around us, it's not good! But if we can integrate our devices into our real-world lives, we can make them work for us instead of just being victimized by their allure. 😍
Yes to everything! SO much benefit to having access to them; from health to writing to connection, there's an insane amount of ways that they can help us and our happiness. Like you said, all about integration and balance. As is with most good things in life, too much can sometimes be exactly that. Miss ya!
Yes, the problem is they are so addictive. Especially the dang games. Ha ha. Hope to see you soon.
Gonna enjoy the sunset from my balcony right now, will reply to this tomorrow ;<)