With the advancement of technology and rise of digital media, the power of the Internet and countless other resources is only a finger tap away. Yet in this digital age, the quality of work and efficiency may come with a price that most people haven’t signed up for or aren’t aware of. I’m talking of course about the addiction people have to phones. People have taken the gift of phones with open arms, but they find themselves caught in a “web” when trying to detach themselves from it and instantly lose their focus. “To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction” as described by Cal Newport in his book Deep Work.
In a survey conducted by USA Today, they looked to see how bad people have become addicted to their phones, and the results were concerning. They found that half of people would rather have a broken bone than have a broken phone. And that people would rather give up food and sleep than lose Internet connections. The results are shocking at first, but according to Apple people unlock their phones 80 times a day, and suddenly those results don’t seem as crazy if people are that attached. Going forward I am going to try and monitor my phone usage by keeping track of how many times I unlock my phone over the course of a day and then try to cut that number in half. One way to accomplish this is I can turn off notifications and alerts so I am not desperate to check on my phone as much.
Smartphones should only have two purposes: to contact people and to search for more information. The use of phones can become a major distraction and take people’s minds away from what is right in front of them. Remember going to the movies and having that one person on their phone distracting you because of the bright light in a dark room? The same can be applied to phones anywhere else because people are distracted by phone alerts, screens, and even just having it on a desk nearby. It takes people out of the moment consciously. And surprising enough this past Summer I tried something new while I was on vacation. I took no pictures and made no posts on social media during my trip because I wanted to be in the moment and take in where I was. And I’ll be honest it was peaceful without the stress of finding the “post-worthy” picture and how many likes it will get. Instead I shut down my phone and took in each day with my own lenses and memory, and felt sorry for those around me distracted by their phones as moments of opportunity and appreciating where they were passed by each time they swiped their phone.
After putting down the phone, the next step that is needed to be taken is returning to the ways of reading that have been lost over the years. Most people struggle to sit and read and I myself am guilty of it too. And because people struggle to maintain focus they instead just drag their eyes across the page or maybe read the first and last sentence of every paragraph and then move on. By eliminating all distractions and working at it daily, it is possible for people to get back to reading in rhythm, but then they should consider taking it a step further. I recently read an article “How to Remember What You Read,”and in it they talk about how people can recall everything they read in high school because not only did they read the books, they also analyzed the plot, characters, discussed it in class, and took quizzes. That is why the information has remained with them to this day. I’m not saying people should read each everything like they’re trying to pass high school English, but they should approach some readings with more effort. Read the article or book and then reflect on it, or even research more on it. Let it sit for a while and then read it again either after a few days or after applying what was read. The information retained could prove to be useful. And by reading something again people can pick up on things they missed the first time or realize a point has different or multiple meanings. Even everyone’s favorite movie which they’ve seen possibly a dozen times has one or two things they notice when watching it again. Winnie T. Frick put it best in her article “I Have Forgotten How to Read” when she said “what’s at stake is not whether we read. It’s how we read.”
