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About letting go of digital distractions
A few years ago I wrote Bit Literacy to say "let the bits go." Now we're reaping what we sowed, with more people distracted, more of the time, in more places - notably, behind the wheel of a car. Here's the PDF of the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin folks, and here's a review of some of the research.
And this column summarizes it well:
Americans are so addicted to techno-surfing that they've gotten hubristic about how many machines they can juggle simultaneously. ... using digital devices gives you "a dopamine squirt" ... Americans woke up one day to find that they were don't-miss-a-moment addicts who feel compelled to respond to all messages immediately. The tech industry is our drug dealer, feeding the intense social and economic pressure to stay constantly in touch with employers, colleagues, friends and family.
Meantime, quoting from this profile of the Dalai Lama,...
True happiness doesn't mean trying to acquire things, so much as letting go of things.
In other words: Let the bits go.
That seems like a very real problem these days.
Mark, I noticed that you are also twittering now. Would you not agree that this also adds to the scattering of information and the pressure of needing to be hooked in to all sorts of channels to keep up?
Mark, you have brought together similar insights from many different (diverse) digitally-mediated sources. It is a message which resonates all the more, the more of the same sources we may happen to have looked at ourselves. (I happen to have looked at a couple of the same locales you mention).
So, here's the question -- is this a good way to get your basic point across? i look forward to a re-thinking and a re-issuing of Bit Literacy V. 2, brought forward to the present day. BLV2: interviews with information dieters and what it has meant to their now-less-mediated lives. What do you say?
I really liked this post. I actually found my way to your blog for some other research I'm doing on customer service but this post stuck out for me.
I have put together an entire system to streamline my social media usage but even though it makes everything more efficient I still have to manage every piece. It's a little maddening. Strangely enough all of the complexities of being a part of the social web are contrary to my own philosophy of simplicity.
I left my iPhone at home last night on purpose and I found it strangely liberating but I don't think I could make it a full day. Great post, I especially liked the Dalai Lama quote.