Mindfulness in a Digital Age

March 4th, 2017

At the Academy Awards this year, the wrong movie was announced as the Best Picture which created a very awkward situation.  After a full investigation, the cause of the embarrassment was a distracted staff member who was using social media while he should have been fully focused on his job.

I was not surprised that social media and cell phone use caused this debacle.  Many major train crashes and derailments in recent years have been attributed to conductors who were not paying attention because they were looking at their phones.  Don’t get me wrong, I think phones and social media are not inherently “evil”.  Heck, you may be reading this article on your phone right now!

My concern is that we are no longer living in the moment and experiencing life now.  Humans can not “multitask”.  We are not designed to deal with more than one task at once.  Meanwhile, while I’m writing this blog, I am drinking my morning cup of coffee and listening to music.  Isn’t that multitasking?  Yes, an observer may think that I am doing three things at once but I’m actually not.  I’m typing for a few seconds, then my attention goes to reach for the coffee mug, then it goes back to typing on the keyboard.  I am actually “toggling” between activities, albeit at a very fast pace.  I am not truly doing these three things at once.

If a task requires more concentration or I am doing more tasks at once, the “toggling” becomes more cumbersome and reaction/response time will increase.  My chance for error will also increase.  Hence, this is the root of the Oscar incident and many accidents.

While it is not entirely feasible to “disconnect” from our phones entirely in this digital age, I would recommend that we try to avoid the temptation to be staring at screens all the time.

Here are some tips to learn how to “live in the moment”.

• Create a dedicated “time out” from electronic devices each day.  I recommend putting the phone away when you are eating and at least one hour before bedtime.  Why?  Distracted eating can cause you to overeat.  Think about the last time you went to the movies and how much popcorn or candy you ate.  Looking at the news (especially nowadays!) and social media before bedtime can also lead to disrupted sleep.  Oftentimes when we sleep, we replay events or thoughts in our mind particularly things that occupied our minds just before falling asleep.
• Remove or hide “addictive” apps from the phone/tablet.  Games and shopping are great distractions and are not all bad.  They can sometimes give your mind a mini “mental coffee break”.  However, if you are finding they are taking up too much of your time, they can negatively impact your health.  That 20 minutes playing a “Candy” game could be better spent getting some fresh air outdoors or calling a friend you haven’t spoken to in a long time.
• Talk to people.  It’s amazing how little we talk to people even with our closest friends.  We text, instant message, snapchat, tweet, but we don’t talk to real people in real time as much as we should.  Pick up the phone and call someone today.
• Practice mindful eating or any other activity.  We need to experience things more completely.  Try this little experiment.  The next time you start to eat something, take one small bite of the food and close your eyes.  Take 2 full minutes to eat that piece of food.  Allow your taste buds and your mouth to fully sense the full texture, taste, and even sound produced.  You would be surprised how wildly complex and exciting one bite of food can be, but we don’t often realize it because we are eating too quickly and eating with distractions.  This often leads to overeating.  You can adapt this to any life experience.  I love to do this when I’m enjoying a beautiful sunset.
• Try an “Electronic Device Fast”.  Just like people stop eating food for certain religious holidays, I recommend a period of time where we live as we did 15 years ago.  Put away your tablets and/or phones for just one day or two.  Right now, most of us continue to check our electronic devices even while on vacation!  I am just as guilty of this myself.  However, on a recent trip to Cuba, where internet access is difficult, I was forced to disconnect for 3 days and it felt great.  When you first try the “fast”, you will notice that smartphones are like drugs, you will notice a sense of withdrawal.  However, after a while you will be much more mindful and focused on “real life” experiences rather than “screen” life.
• Meditate.  I can’t overemphasize how meditation is the best solution to counter the negative effects of information overload.  I think meditation is like the “reset” button for our brains, similar to pushing and holding the power button on the smartphone when you’ve opened too many apps and the phone freezes.