Digitally Distracted
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This is going to be ugly and humiliating, so have a seat. We
might be here a while.
I’ve been thinking a lot about digital distractions lately.
Our campus was hurt recently by some people misusing
Twitter. I won’t go into the details, but it was not good, all around. Our
president addressed the situation beautifully in chapel, beginning with the
concept of digital distraction.
He suggested that chapel is probably not the place to be
digitally distracted—it’s meant for more than just a community gathering time.
Chapel is worship and worship might just not be the appropriate place for cell
phones.
Using the example of a Christmas Eve service he attended, he
explained that the gentleman sitting next to him was on his cell phone,
checking email or something else, throughout the service. Our president said he
didn’t know what to do. He was so distracted that he couldn’t enjoy the
worshipful Christmas Eve service that was unfolding before him because of the
person sitting next to him.
I’ve had the same experience during one of my daughter’s
orchestra concerts. A gentleman walked into the concert late, sat down next to
me, and pulled out his cell phone. The bright light emanating from his phone
distracted me throughout the concert, ruining the experience entirely.
Both of these experiences have got me thinking (and here’s
where things get ugly and humiliating for me)—have I been digitally distracted?
The easy answer to that question is yes. I know I have.
When I close my computer for the night, then immediately pick
up my cell phone and start checking emails, I know I have a problem. When I
walk in the door and check Facebook updates, I know I have a problem. When I
come downstairs in the morning and read emails before I read my Bible, I know I
have a problem.
Here are a few thoughts I’ve had recently as God has spoken
to my heart about my own digital distractions.
When we are digitally
distracted, we hurt people without realizing it. Sometimes we are so
consumed by what’s going on inside the screen that we forget to look up and see
what’s going on outside of it. I know I have hurt people by my own actions in
this area, something that is so humbling to me I can barely stand to write it. I
have also been on the receiving end of others’ digital distraction, so I fully
understand the hurt I have caused.
If I truly believe that people are more important than
things, I need to look up and out, not into a screen.
When we are digitally
distracted, we keep ourselves from doing other things we probably should be doing.
Like making dinner, hanging curtains, and cleaning out closets. These are just
a few things on my to-do list. What does yours look like?
When we are digitally
distracted, we keep others from doing what they should be doing. I wonder
if my distraction has so consumed the people around me that it distracted them
from other things as well. I wonder if I’ve been like that person in church,
just checking my phone real quick, and keeping someone from worshiping God as
they should.
So I’ve been wondering what I need to change, and I’ve come
up with a few ideas.
Be aware. This
process has already started for me, and I am so much more aware lately of how
I’ve allowed digital distractions to creep into my real life. I understand that
there is a time and a place for technology in my life—I couldn’t work or write
without it—but there is also a time and a place to put the technology aside.
Look up, not in. I’m
going to try, as much as possible, to close my computer when my kids walk in
the room. Hey, I’ve got teenagers, and the conversations don’t always happen
naturally. Sometimes they just happen when we’re hanging out, undistracted. I
know for sure that my kids aren’t going to talk to me if I barely look up when
they enter the room. (Another sentence that is slightly painful to write.)
This sounds like such a no-brainer but I need to limit my time on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader.
Twitter isn’t that much of a distraction for me—I rarely go there, but when I
do I can get sucked in. Facebook and Google Reader, though, are complete traps
for me. Again, I don’t think any of this is necessarily wrong, and I find it
relaxing to read blogs, but if the amount of time I’m spending there feels like
too much, it’s too much.
You might be thinking, What’s
the big deal? If my kids are on the computer doing homework, why can’t I just
be on my computer too? Here’s why I think it’s a big deal: I think our kids
take their cues from us, and if they see us sitting in front of a screen all
evening, they will think the same is O.K. for them.
But the truth is, we desperately need to get away from it
all. We need time and space to just talk or read or think. And being digitally
distracted is not going to give us the space to do that.
Like I said, I need my computer to work and to write, but I
don’t need my computer as much or as often as I think I do. This week I’m going
to try, especially when my family is around, to live in the real world rather
than the virtual one. Hopefully my habits will change and I’ll be a better person
for it.
Of course, I might find some other things change too. I
might find that I don’t need technology as much as I think I do. I might find
that those spontaneous conversations actually can and do happen. I might find
that I like myself a little more and that the people around me like me better
too.
Trust me, this is so convicting to write, but I worry that
it’s not just me who is digitally distracted. We’re raising an entire
generation of kids who think they cannot survive without being plugged in. (Believe
me, I see it every day at work.)
Glennon at Momastery (a fabulous new-to-me blog that I already LOVE) wrote about this recently, and she said
this: “Sometimes I have to turn away from the computer so that I can experience
life and then come back and write about what I noticed.”
Yes! I need . . . my kids need . . . an entire generation needs to turn away from digital distractions
and simply experience LIFE. I want to be the parent who models this because I
want my kids to live in the real world.
And want to live there too.
How about you? Have
you been digitally distracted? What did you do about it? I’d love to know your
thoughts on this.
