Do you have control over the digital devices in your life or do they control you? As a life-long technology advocate this writer sees them as tools for human empowerment. For many they are instead like slot machines paying out rewards of micro attention. The difference between digital empowerment and slavery is determined entirely by how we choose to use our tech.
In my former life the dominant communications format was email. Its superiority over the previous dominant format—voice telephone—is its asynchronous nature. The sender and recipient's available time don't have to align putting an end to phone tag.
Email's heir—text messaging—shares its asynchronism, but without the potential for droll details. This brevity has misled users of text messaging into an expectation of immediate response. When a reply isn't made "soon enough" some senders express impatience. This unnecessary social pressure creates reply anxiety on all text users. The consequences include distracted drivers and mobile phone zombies.
I used instant messaging services like ICQ, AIM and Yahoo! Messenger on my desktop PC and found that distracting enough. Without the "status away" feature I could get little work done. The idea of being always available for IM on mobile is crazy! IMOHO
The solution to this issue should be obvious to everyone, but requires self- discipline. My favorite Paul Harvey mantra was "Self-government doesn't work without self-discipline." You need to separate your "phone available" time from your "I'm busy" time, just like my old "status away" moments.
Take the example of a dolphin. As fun as it is to play with her friends a while longer, she needs to surface periodically to breathe. You never hear about dolphins drowning because of social pressure to stay and chat. They compartmentalize their lives into breathing **BUSY** and submersing **AVAILABLE**.
You should similarly put your digital device in do not disturb mode or learn to ignore it when you do life critical things like walking or driving. Then respond when you do non-critical things like sitting or waiting in line. Just like email those text messages will wait for a time of your convenience and your friends will adapt to your new pattern.
When you are in control again you will be empowered and no longer a digital slave.
Of course social media is probably not worth your time anyway. The intriguing video below explains a theory that AI is steering the public masses to same-minded content and supressing truely original dialogue.
Thank you for reading.