Image Courtesy Ola Dapo | Pexels
By Naomi Pham | Tiny Buddha
“Today be thankful and think how rich you are. Your family is priceless. Your health is wealth. Your time is gold.” ~Unknown
The other day I read a science fiction story called “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury. It’s about Leopard Mead, a citizen of TV-centered society, who enjoys walking at night.
The routine eventually lands him a cell in a psychiatric center because nobody understands why he does that. In the television-dominated city, people don’t walk. They’re too busy sticking their eyeballs to their screens.
I wonder if there will be a day when technology takes over us all, when we become so dependent on it that non-digital activities are considered abnormal. A sane act is considered insane.
Maybe the TV-centered society is not fiction but already here. Many of us today can’t live without our phone, laptop, or iPad. Their presence is so crucial in our routine that their absence brings discomfort.
We don’t just use digital devices for information consumption. We let them direct our life. We reach for the phone first thing in the morning to check emails, read news, reply to text messages. We use our laptop for work, more than eight hours per day. At night, we do more surfing with our phone, and won’t stop until past midnight.
Our whole life is digital-based. We can’t afford to lose our gadgets. Technology is more than just a means of communication. It’s a tool for living. We need it for work, relaxation, and entertainment.
The cost is alarming.
How Does Technology Affect Us?
1. It wreaks havoc on our well-being.
Hours of working before screens puts a strain on our eyesight. Overexposure to blue light causes lack of sleep and body exhaustion. Not to mention the pressure our back and neck have to endure when we sit in one position for too long.
Surfing the net constantly also makes us more prone to bad moods and negative thinking. It’s not hard to know why. The media is ridden with bad news.
And while we may think watching TV or YouTube videos can lift our mood, it only helps us escape negative feelings temporarily. The moment we stop watching, we’re back to the black mood. We’ll feel even more bored, irritated, and depressed.
2. It ruins our relationships.
More time spent online also means less time for those we care about most. Instead of playing with our kids, talking to them, or taking them out for an ice cream, we devote our attention to phones or laptops. Most of the time it’s just mindless browsing on the net, reading junky news, surfing Facebook, texting.
3. It kills time.
Time may seem abundant, but it’s not limitless. At least our time is not limitless. It flies at lightning speed. One day, we’ll look back and wonder where it went.
All this precious time we could use to create, to observe the beauty of the world, to contribute, we squander it all for mindlessly scrolling.
4. It loads us with information.
If you think time spent online consuming information makes you happier and more knowledgeable, think again.
Information abundance is a curse, not a blessing. More content is written now than ever. But it doesn’t help us achieve our goals faster. On the contrary, it slows down our progress. We get overwhelmed and confused in the sea of content. Instead of choosing to follow one resource, we might end up using too many and get lost as a result.
Taking blogging, for example. There are hundreds of resources to teach us how to blog. If we’re not satisfied with one, we can always switch to another. Trying out too many strategies at a time can result in failures.
5. It makes us too lazy to think.
Information is so available, why bother thinking when the answer we need is only one click away? And not just one answer, millions of answers showing up as we hit the search button.
How to Reduce Technology’s Impact on Our Life?
I used to be an Internet addict. I like writing and spent most of my time scribbling on my phone or iPad. I could get lost in online articles, blogs, and e-books for hours on end. When I got tired from writing or reading, I often roamed the Internet mindlessly—reading junk news, binge-watching YouTube videos, etc. There was a time when I liked to stay indoors. I had no idea why. I just didn’t feel like hanging out with friends. I liked to work and hang out by myself.
It took me a while to realize I was missing out on a big part of life. The Internet, while nice, couldn’t replace the real world. If I stopped browsing for a second, I would see that there was a whole world to explore, new hobbies to learn, interesting places to travel, and wonderful friends to share my happiness with.
