The Internet is exhausting. Those utopian 1990s dial-up speeds are a distant memory, along with the romance we felt when the World Wide Web was first introduced just 25 years ago. Now the very idea of being offline for an extended period of time sounds more like a luxury than a realistic possibility. We’re connected 24/7, we’re distracted, we’re absent from our bodies and we’re increasingly discontent. We continue to blur the lines between tactical and digital realities. Despite growing evidence that our digital dependency has significant negative physical, mental and cognitive ramifications, we just keep on scrolling.
You probably don’t need another person telling you we’re all doomed to become unconscious, screen-thumbing shells of our former selves. You already feel that urgent pull to swipe, type and tap throughout the day. In the time it took me to write these words, I will have looked at my phone an embarrassing number of times to answer texts, look at emails or sift through Instagram. But when we stop to consider our current relationship with technology, we can’t help but wonder how attached we really are to our digital devices. While it’s a hard subject to get a handle on, we pulled some numbers for perspective. The results? It’s not pretty, folks.
The rate at which technology is moving intertwines with our obsession to become smarter, faster and more efficient, making it difficult to maintain a positive perspective about the future. But an antidote is developing with a growing movement toward going analog, at least part of the time. People are creating radical ways to reclaim their time and individual consciousness. Digital detox retreats now offer an escape to reconnect with nature and support each other IRL. The very institutions that created social media and iPhones have started to develop well-being initiatives, and ironically, they’re also launching apps to counter the impact of heavy social media consumption. All of these new initiatives prove major efforts are being made to counter the effects of technology.
Philosopher of media studies Marshall MacLuhan once said, “We shape our tools and therefore our tools shape us.” In today’s world, these words ring loud and true. The very instruments we created for convenience and connection are omnipresent in our modern lives. We begin and end our days on digital devices. Research continues to remind us that the impact of our constant screen time is extremely unhealthy. Does knowing the facts make a difference in changing our behavior? And there it is again— that pull to reach for our phones, leading us to ask ourselves if we’ve lost control. Only time will tell.
Images by Sarah Kue.
xx Lisa
This article was originally published in RANGE Magazine Issue Nine.