Time to be honest…I am constantly distracted. 

After reflecting and talking about digital habits earlier in the week, I realized just how frequently I am distracted by the digital devices that I surround myself with. I was also prompted to think deeper about my digital habits (or distractions) after reading an article by Michael Harris. Michael quoted another author Nicholas Carr by saying, “we become ‘more intolerant of moments that pass without the arrival of new stimuli’” (Harris). This line of the article stuck out to me because as I was reading this exact line, the music I turned on before sitting down to read started to lag, and I got frustrated. I then realized that the quote was telling the harsh truth. We are constantly being stimulated in this digital age, and it’s become normalized. I can’t even sit still in silence and read an article or a book without an extra form of stimulus. Sometimes it’s music, other times I’ve turned on the TV to read a book. 

This caused me to sit for a moment and pause to reflect on the habits I have with digital media. Through my reflection, I discover I am hardly ever just still doing one activity. If I am walking in nature, my phone is playing music. If I am working, I have a podcast queued up. If I am bored, rather than talk to a loved one, I open Instagram. I hate to admit that I have had moments of working on my computer, while my phone was playing music and my TV was on mute in the background.

While I do have to give myself credit, I managed to implement a rule of leaving my phone in another room when it’s time to eat dinner with my family nightly. Most times, we have the TV on in the living room just an earshot away. Then, when dinner is done, I immediately return to my phone to see if I missed anything in the 30 minutes I was away from it. 

I used to think, because I didn’t spend hours on social media anymore, that I too was immune to the constant digital stimuli, but looking at my habits from a bird’s eye view, I can’t recall the last time I sat in complete silence focusing on one task at hand. 

Sources:

Harris, Michael. “I Have Forgotten How to Read.” The Globe and Mail, The Globe and Mail, 9 Feb. 2018, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/i-have-forgotten-how-toread/article37921379/