It is a little bit like living in a science fiction movie. Almost overnight people around the world were abruptly forced to change their lives to stop the spread of a deadly disease carried by an invisible airborne virus. As it became apparent that the only way to stop its spread was to stay away from each other physically, we moved en masse to communicating electronically. Ironically, the Wi-Fi signals that made this possible also travel through the air and are a mystery to most of us.
Nevertheless, close to a third of Americans are now working from their home offices and kitchen tables. Therapists and physicians have been given the regulatory go ahead to see patients virtually, and grocery and take-out delivery services have been swamped by the demand for their services. Facebook and other social media sites have become conduits for advice, encouragement, and support related to the virus. Virtual meeting sites have gone mainstream and become the go-to vehicle for work related meetings, schoolwork, and social gatherings.
Unfortunately, the very screen use that has enabled us to stay connected in the age of COVID-19 has its own problems. Research suggests that more than half of people who use computers for work experience eye strain and headaches. Blue light-emitting devices have been shown to disrupt our sleep patterns. It can also take more cognitive effort to stay focused electronically. In addition, we have to work harder to interpret non-verbal expressions and tones of voice, especially when the technological connection isn’t clear. In person, we watch the speaker to decide when it is our turn to speak, but that is a complicated task on a multi-person video platform. Consequently, our conversations are filled with overlapping comments and uncomfortable silences.
Maintaining a positive image online can also be a strain. In the age of the selfie, we are all very aware of how we appear to others. But posting the occasional picture on Instagram is very different than communicating with all of your work colleagues and friends from your home. Normally when we converse, we are not watching our own facial expressions at the same time. Furthermore, we typically tailor our behavior to our settings. Most of us dress and even speak differently at work than when we are socializing with friends. But now we are interacting with people in virtual facsimiles of all of those settings, from the same place in our home. In doing so we are giving other people a glimpse of our homes, pets, kids, and hair and make-up without professional help. The plethora of videos purportedly telling us how to look our best on Zoom conferences speak to the fear we all have of not living up to the image we would like to think we project to others.
It is also harder to see people accurately when we only have access to their screen presence. Right now, it is easy to sit in front of a computer condemning people who are not self-distancing, without thinking about the very real economic challenges faced by many of the members of our society whose jobs cannot be done from home. Conversely, people in communities who haven’t had a lot of coronavirus infections and deaths can afford to be smug about their efforts, or dismissive of possible dangers, because they don’t have a personal connection to the struggle. Neither perspective acknowledges the fact that the virus is a biological phenomenon, which is causing havoc in a very complex physically and financially interconnected world.
So, should we just throw our hands up and declare that electronic screens have ruined the world as we know it? Ironically, the advent of the printing press generated such sentiments because people worried that reading would obviate the need for memorization. But what if we decided to approach our screen time with a combination of conscious thought and compassion? As Maslow postulated over half a century ago, human needs are complex and run the gamut from obtaining the basics like food, water, and security, to creating social connections, to using our verbal and creative skills to express ourselves and improve the world.
What if we thought about our screen use in terms of these basic needs? Are we devoting most of our online time to instrumental tasks we need to do or spending too much time watching depressing news? Are we consciously reaching out to people we care about in order to stay in touch or mindlessly scrolling through social media? Can we use the vast amount of information on the internet to help us pursue goals like learning a language, taking up a craft or hobby, or taking virtual tours of places we have always wanted to visit? As with any other tool, the value of our screen time is a function of how we use it, making it important to pay attention to your own usage patterns.
THE BASICS
Where are you spending your screen time? Source: Mary McNaughton-Cassill But using screen time effectively doesn’t mean that we are actually living a virtual life. In fact, to maintain balance we all need to consciously reconnect to the real world around us. Taking breaks to stretch, walk, or spend time outside can reduce the physical strain of staring at a screen. Viewing ourselves and the people we communicate with compassionately can help too. If nothing else, we are getting the chance to see people in a more realistic light. Even the celebrities broadcasting from their homes look less like models and more like regular people when they have to brush their own hair. Maybe seeing each other, in real settings, can help to dispel our unrealistic photoshopped assumptions about how others look and live.
Finally, we could use this time to practice thinking about the world from other perspectives, instead of simply reiterating our own points of view. Humans have been adapting to changing circumstances for millennia. Surely, there is a way to use electronic airwaves to enhance our real world lives, while standing far enough apart to keep the virus out of the air we breathe.