They're Changing Your Brain: The Unintended Consequences of Our Machines

February 20, 2020 by Seth Haines

Read my continuing a series on our increasing attachment to smartphones.

I’m working on a longer piece, a piece on the unintended consequences of our relationship with technology. (Look for it in my Newsletter on March 1.) To be clear, I’m not some Skyfall Chicken Little, but research is beginning to catch up with the neurological effects of modernity’s endless tryst with innovation. Particularly, smartphone innovation and the resulting addiction. In an article published by the Daily Mail yesterday, it was reported:

German researchers examined 48 participants using the MRI images — 22 with smartphone addiction and 26 non-addicts.

Writing in the study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, the researchers write: “Compared to controls, individuals with smartphone addiction showed lower gray matter volume in left anterior insula, inferior temporal and parahippocampal cortex.”

Decreased grey matter in one of these regions, the insula, has previously been linked to substance addiction.

What does the region of the brain known as the insulae do? In a piece for the New York Times, Sandra Blakeslee writes:

“[Neurologists] say it is the wellspring of social emotions, things like lust and disgust, pride and humiliation, guilt and atonement. It helps give rise to moral intuition, empathy and the capacity to respond emotionally to music.

If this is the case, perhaps our collective decrease in insula gray matter explains society’s current lack of empathy, our incessant online bickering, our inability to point to the beauty in the world around us. And yes, this sounds like a conclusory statement, but spend ten minutes on Twitter. Is it too far-fetched a conclusion?

Life Examined: Do a Little Research

Today, make your way to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. (Yes, I know what I’m asking you to do.)
How long does it take to find a post that fires you up, makes you angry, or causes you to feel depressed or lonely? Less than three minutes?
Ask yourself whether the resulting emotions are worth the time you spend on the platform.

Grab a Copy and Wake Up

THE BOOK OF WAKING UP —a book on addiction, attachment, and the Divine Love—launched TUESDAY so order a copy or ten at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookish (my favorite indie bookseller). Then, forward this post to a friend and ask them to read along.

Social Media Brings The Fix, But What Else Does it Bring?

February 19, 2020 by Seth Haines

Since noticing my screen time crossed the 4 hour-per-day threshold, I’ve been more mindful. Trying to reduce it by no less than an hour-per-day, I’ve set new parameters. How am I doing? Yesterday , I spent 2:16 minutes on my phone, most of which was on account of scheduling meetings via text. I’d say that’s progress.

Yesterday, I popped on to social media for a quick spit, thought I’d see what folks were cursing on any given Tuesday. Before I knew it, I’d thrown 8 minutes of my screen time into the dumpster fire of Twitter and watched it burn. I felt the fire rising as I read their tweets—the Southern Baptist professor whose detractors lambaste her because she’s a woman; the Midwestern man who’s lost his sense of God; the political pundits who cannot fathom following another day of this presidency. Every base emotion was triggered in the span of those six minutes, but when I escaped that vortex I felt a dark sadness seeping in.

In The Book of Waking Up, I wrote this:

What is social media but technological heroin? It’s a distracting hook, an attention manipulator, a time suck. It’s equal parts feast, famine, fear, ego, and political dumpster fire, and the content… is created by the people for the people. It’s our method of mass communication, our way to be heard, our method of connecting with people when we’re alone. This centering of our own message, opinion, need, whatever—doesn’t it etch a groove?

No matter how much I swear it off, I always end up back on the social-media sauce. Why? When I’m alone, my brain plays the groove in the record: Media brings the fix. (#89. Groove 5: Social Consumption)

There are very simple scientific reasons we believe this message, reasons I wrestle onto the page in The Book of Waking Up. But instead of retreading those reasons here, I’ll simply ask: Do you feel the uncontrollable pull to social media, to Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook? If so, ask yourself Why? More importantly, ask yourself, After a good social media binge, how do I feel? Are you angry, sad, full of despair or regret? If so, why do you keep going back to that poisoned well?*

*This is not to say that all social media is bad. I use it and will continue to, just with eyes opened much wider.

Life Examined: Social Media Parameters

Today, take a look at your screen time statistics. How much time do you spend each day on social media?
What does social media do for you? How does it make you feel? Answer these questions honestly.
Write down some parameters for your social media use (examples: no social media during work hours; less than thirty minutes of social media a day; unfollow accounts that drive your blood pressure to Katie-call-the-ambulance levels.)
Visit my thread on smartphone addiction and throw down your two cents.

Grab a Copy and Wake Up

Curbing Smartphone Addiction Like a Monk

February 18, 2020 by Seth Haines

Last week, I—the guy who wrote an entire book on attachment to the stuff of earth—spent more than 4 hours per day on my cell phone. My cellphone use was on an upward trend, and I decided it had to stop. How would curb I my well-fixed attachment? Through simple, incremental change.

Yesterday, I placed my phone on the far side of the room, next to the wilting plant and a minimalist interior design book I keep in my office for inspiration. It’s a corner of the room I frequent less than I should.

Switching the ringer on (in case Amber or a client called), I fell into a sort of forced “monk mode,” a state business writer Greg McKeown describes as “shutting out the world for a time.” I worked a focused flow for one hour, then a second, taking a break only once to refill my coffee mug (and see a man about a horse, if you know what I mean). And with my phone out of sight and out of mind, the barrage of silent notifications from Instagram, Messenger, Voxer, The Weather Channel, and the like passed unnoticed.

This is what monks do; they ignore the superfluous to tend to what’s important.

I worked a similar flow in the second half of the workday, and though my will-power is lowest in these hours, having my phone across the room seemed to help. At four o’clock, I answered a scheduled call and after I hung up, I looked at my screen time report. It was five minutes till the end of the workday, and I’d only logged 55 minutes.

By the end of the night, I’d only used my phone a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes. How did I feel at the end of the day?

Focused. Energized. Accomplished.

What did I miss?

Nothing as far as I can tell, except the tyranny of my smartphone notifications, and that seems to be a thing worth missing.*

*Yesterday, I opened a new thread on smartphone addiction on Substack, in which I ask you for suggestions. Check it out.

Life Examined: An Incremental Plan.

Today, set aside at least one hour and enter “monk mode.” During that monk mode hour (or hours), hide your phone, disconnect from social media, and focus on what matters most.
After your time is up, spend fifteen minutes examining how you feel. Ask yourself whether you ought to make this part of your daily routine. Examine what this might do to break your smartphone attachment, even if it’s only an incremental step.

Join Me

What to hear more about how you can help bring a book on silence to life? Don’t forget to head to my latest Substack post for more.