Can you go 3 hours without checking a screen?
Device usage in our lives is unprecedented – 4 out of 5 of us are checking our smartphones within the first 15 minutes of opening our eyes and for 62% of us it’s the absolute first thing we do on regaining consciousness every morning*
Device usage is controversial – there are predictions that ‘being at ease in total silence could become such a rarefied commodity that, instead of being a normal part of the human repertoire, it will find itself on a wistful wish list of the future’ and ‘screens will become the driver of our lives, we will become passive recipients and as this occurs, we will lose control of our own inner private world, and our own inner realities’. In short, device usage is changing our brains faster than at any other time in evolution. ‘Mind Change’ (much like Climate Change) is a globally unprecedented, multi-faceted and controversial umbrella concept **
The known risks arising from the pervasive and invasive role of technology in our lives include***:
- interference with other more important things we need and want to be getting on with in our lives
- a multitude of negative mental health consequences such as declining attention spans, trouble concentrating and difficulty focussing
- disrupted sleep patterns, lower quality and quantity of sleep and weight gain from being less active, all of which result in lower levels of physical health, energy and vitality
- the more people are connected the more isolated/anxious they feel
So, who’s in charge of your life… you or your screens? Take the EEK & Sense device challenge today: prove to yourself that you are not addicted to the distraction of external input to determine and shape your thoughts, choices and actions. Can you go 3 hours at work today without checking a screen?
References:
* IDC Research Report, 2013
** ‘Mind Change’ by Susan Greenfield, 2014
*** Howard J., The impact of digital technologies on human wellbeing: Evidence from the sciences of mind and brain, 2011
Rosen L.D., iDisorder: Understanding our obsession with technology and overcoming its hold on us, 2012