Source: Rodin, the Thinker, wikimedia Why should we do a weekly electronic detox?
Simply put, we need a weekly detox, because the internet insistently invades our minds, uses up our mental bandwidth, and limits the amount of good, creative, problem-solving thought we can do.
There are four ways the internet interrupts our thought:
1. It Puts Us in a Continually Reactive Mode of Behavior
Imagine it’s the middle of summer and you’re sitting outside with a book you’re trying to read. But there are lots of gnats flying around, landing on your bare arms and neck, buzzing, biting you, and just generally being irritating.
They keep interrupting you, diverting your attention, and forcing you to react and shoo them away.
The messages we get on the internet are a lot like that. They swarm in like insects. Most are inconsequential, often from people or companies we don’t even know. But they demand that we react to them in some way.
They’re electronic gnats.
A weekly detox can provide a wonderful electronic insecticide.
2. The Internet Erodes the Time Necessary for Conflict Resolution Issues and Personal Self Integration
As we navigate our life-space, questions about relationships and personal self-understanding arise that we need to deal with. We need time for loose associative thinking. We need unhurried, exploratory time to deal with these kinds of questions.
I call this kind of thinking “Secondary Dream Time,” because it resembles the kind of loose, symbolic thinking we do during primary dream time. It is often during these “dream times” that we can find the inspirations necessary to understand the self and resolve relationship issues. Spending too much time on the internet greatly interrupts our ability to engage in Secondary Dream Time. Our thinking becomes too shallow and immediate, instead of slow and probing as it needs to be.
You can’t resolve deep, important questions when you’re trying to see how fast you can find the answer.
The internet wants us to think inside the box, and they’ve created the boundaries of the box. Hence the need for electronic detox.
3. The Internet Infects Us with the Value System and Metabolism of Silicon Valley
The guiding philosophy of much of Silicon Valley was articulated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he said, “Move fast and break things.”
They’ve been doing that ever since.
It is a world characterized by frenzied overwork, disruption, cultural destabilization, and the goal of gigantic profits.
Elizabeth Holmes, the glamorous Stanford University dropout, was for a time the glittering poster child for Silicon Valley. Then her company, Theranos, was discovered to be based on a fraudulent blood-testing technology. She now awaits criminal prosecution and is out on $500,000 bail.
When Elizabeth Holmes was asked once as a little girl what she planned to be when she grew up, she knew exactly what she wanted to be: “A billionaire.”
Frenzy and toxicity are in the culture of Silicon Valley, and it hangs over the internet like a miasma.
4. The Internet Has Capabilities and Algorithms That Can Deepen the Divisions Between People
Early founders of internet companies spoke loftily of developing their platforms to “bring people together.” But their real purpose is to gather vast amounts of data on internet users so they can attract advertising dollars.
Anyone can set up any number of internet accounts, with virtually any message, to reach whatever audience they choose.
And they do.
Oftentimes that audience is you, and people on the internet know just how to get you to click on their message.
A great deal of testing and research has gone into determining what makes people click on internet items. The two big things that make us click are the presence of interest and emotion. If an item is about something that interests us and arouses our emotion, we probably will click on it. The easiest and most effective way to arouse our emotion is with something that makes us angry, and the items don’t have to be true. In fact, from the standpoint of effectiveness, the more outrageous, the item the better.
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So, for many people, there is good money to be made by spreading misinformation that gets other people angry.
Caveat Cyber!
Although the internet is a valuable tool, it nonetheless has these four problems:
It constantly interrupts us and demands a reaction. It erodes our “Secondary Dream Time,” the time we need for personal problem-solving. It infects our thinking with the toxicity of Silicon Valley. And it creates anger and intensifies the divisions in our country today.
So, counter these negative influences. Take one day a week to do an Electronic Detox. Reclaim your brain!
© 2019 David Evans