I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Granted, we have at our fingertips an extraordinary amount of information, an overwhelming amount. But what keeps us from turning off the telephone, walking away from the television (I've owned exactly one that a friend gave me, not understanding how I got by without one; I almost immediately gave it away), shutting down our computers? We do. It's a choice we make every time we take a phone into our bedrooms, watch entire seasons of a series hour after hour, visit every social media site for which we have an account, never write a letter by hand, keep our "on-lines" open, afraid we might miss something unimportant. We allow ourselves to be used. We accept what the tech bros feed us, the algorithms that make them rich and some of us addicted.
Turn off the damn machines!
Leave them behind and experience what it's like to walk in a beautiful park, unconnected, without your Apple watch measuring every heartbeat and breath, using your eyes to see and hear and delight in. How much you can observe about a painting in a museum when you're not concerned about getting photos for Instagram. What you learn about your partner or child by sitting together at the table after dinner and talking. How much more intimate it is to sit together with your partner on the couch, each of you holding the other's hand, quietly contemplating your love.
Maybe because I'm 73, I know the befores and the afters. The befores always change because we humans continue to develop, to become more than we were when born. The worst thing about the afters is how we allow them to be capitalized ($$$$$) instead of using them to make our lives and the lives of others, the others who have nothing, easier. Witness the pandemic. It was a wake-up call, showing us to ourselves. We flunked its tests, lost its opportunities.
For those faithful soon to approach Lent, consider setting yourself a limit on screen time, and holding to it. Visit your social media platforms once a week for 10 minutes per platform, instead of every day. Turn off your phone when you leave work, and keep it off. Take the buds out of your ears to be alert to those around you - the neighbor who bids you hello in the morning, the stranger who smiles at you on the street. Write your best friend a letter, using paper and pen, instead of sending another email.
My mother, who is 88, prints articles off the computer so that she can read them later. She does also read things on the computer/on her iPad, but she still likes to print things out so that she can read them slowly. Really read them, not just skim diagonally like so many of us now do, simply because there is so much to read, so much we want to read. If this were food, we would be sooo overweight. People used to stroll, now they scroll.
I currently can't stroll much due to health issues, and I was a dressage rider before I got illl, so I was super fit and at the stables for 6 hours a day, therefore less on screens. Now I write, so I'm on screen all the time. With distractions...
I have friends who listen to audiobooks together after dinner, instead of watching television, and I love this idea.
I worked as an editor and writer my entire professional life, so using a computer (I had one of the first ever sold) was necessary and once advancements in its technology occurred, a computer made that kind of work much easier. Two years ago, I built a website for a small publisher. I gave up using pen and paper to write my poetry; I think more clearly when I can see how the poem is setting itself up on the page. So I still use a computer, switching to a Mac some years ago. I've only had a cellphone (Apple) since 2018; I still prefer the old to the new, though acknowledge its benefits for online banking, not getting lost, etc. I just don't let technology rule my daily life.
Incredible piece. And honestly, scary. It’s reassuring to remember how adaptable we are, but you make it clear this isn’t just another shift, it’s a mismatch of speed and biology. The medium we rely on to adapt is actively degrading the cognitive capacities adaptation depends on. That paradox really lands.
Matthew, once again you astound me with the depth of your research. The unequivocal perfection of this essay extraordinary. Though it is terrifying, truly terrifying!
I wish I could make every one of my students read it, debate it, write a reply essay. It won't happen... sadly. But, if just a few words penetrated deep enough for them to stop and think before they next picked up their phones to scroll the latest set of 30 second brain slop on Instagram or TickTock it would be worth every second of the hours I would have to spend in translation. I may do it anyway!
I once read an article about Incan priests bringing a drugged thirteen year-old girl to the top of a mountain and making a sacrifice of her. These people had minds that I can’t possibly fathom and likewise they wouldn’t be able to fathom mine. Not that mine is more “advanced.” It’s just tuned to a different world, a world that would be incomprehensible to them. No doubt future people will wonder how we, in our time, came to have such alienating outlooks and behaviors. And if we were to time travel to their world we would find unbelievable not just the technologies but how people had integrated themselves with those technologies.
Came back here today to read this for a second time (also revisited Part One). Thank you so much for the thought and care (and time!!) you put into these pieces!
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Granted, we have at our fingertips an extraordinary amount of information, an overwhelming amount. But what keeps us from turning off the telephone, walking away from the television (I've owned exactly one that a friend gave me, not understanding how I got by without one; I almost immediately gave it away), shutting down our computers? We do. It's a choice we make every time we take a phone into our bedrooms, watch entire seasons of a series hour after hour, visit every social media site for which we have an account, never write a letter by hand, keep our "on-lines" open, afraid we might miss something unimportant. We allow ourselves to be used. We accept what the tech bros feed us, the algorithms that make them rich and some of us addicted.
Turn off the damn machines!
Leave them behind and experience what it's like to walk in a beautiful park, unconnected, without your Apple watch measuring every heartbeat and breath, using your eyes to see and hear and delight in. How much you can observe about a painting in a museum when you're not concerned about getting photos for Instagram. What you learn about your partner or child by sitting together at the table after dinner and talking. How much more intimate it is to sit together with your partner on the couch, each of you holding the other's hand, quietly contemplating your love.
Maybe because I'm 73, I know the befores and the afters. The befores always change because we humans continue to develop, to become more than we were when born. The worst thing about the afters is how we allow them to be capitalized ($$$$$) instead of using them to make our lives and the lives of others, the others who have nothing, easier. Witness the pandemic. It was a wake-up call, showing us to ourselves. We flunked its tests, lost its opportunities.
For those faithful soon to approach Lent, consider setting yourself a limit on screen time, and holding to it. Visit your social media platforms once a week for 10 minutes per platform, instead of every day. Turn off your phone when you leave work, and keep it off. Take the buds out of your ears to be alert to those around you - the neighbor who bids you hello in the morning, the stranger who smiles at you on the street. Write your best friend a letter, using paper and pen, instead of sending another email.
Or don't. It's a choice. I make it every day.
Hi Maureen,
My mother, who is 88, prints articles off the computer so that she can read them later. She does also read things on the computer/on her iPad, but she still likes to print things out so that she can read them slowly. Really read them, not just skim diagonally like so many of us now do, simply because there is so much to read, so much we want to read. If this were food, we would be sooo overweight. People used to stroll, now they scroll.
I currently can't stroll much due to health issues, and I was a dressage rider before I got illl, so I was super fit and at the stables for 6 hours a day, therefore less on screens. Now I write, so I'm on screen all the time. With distractions...
I have friends who listen to audiobooks together after dinner, instead of watching television, and I love this idea.
Choices...
Thank you, Francesca.
I worked as an editor and writer my entire professional life, so using a computer (I had one of the first ever sold) was necessary and once advancements in its technology occurred, a computer made that kind of work much easier. Two years ago, I built a website for a small publisher. I gave up using pen and paper to write my poetry; I think more clearly when I can see how the poem is setting itself up on the page. So I still use a computer, switching to a Mac some years ago. I've only had a cellphone (Apple) since 2018; I still prefer the old to the new, though acknowledge its benefits for online banking, not getting lost, etc. I just don't let technology rule my daily life.
Incredible piece. And honestly, scary. It’s reassuring to remember how adaptable we are, but you make it clear this isn’t just another shift, it’s a mismatch of speed and biology. The medium we rely on to adapt is actively degrading the cognitive capacities adaptation depends on. That paradox really lands.
Great series, looking forward to the next.
This is a superb and very engaging essay! Thank you for shining a light on this disconcerting issue.
Matthew, once again you astound me with the depth of your research. The unequivocal perfection of this essay extraordinary. Though it is terrifying, truly terrifying!
I wish I could make every one of my students read it, debate it, write a reply essay. It won't happen... sadly. But, if just a few words penetrated deep enough for them to stop and think before they next picked up their phones to scroll the latest set of 30 second brain slop on Instagram or TickTock it would be worth every second of the hours I would have to spend in translation. I may do it anyway!
Bravo my friend! I am in awe...
Thank you for the outstanding piece. Can’t wait fir the next one.
I once read an article about Incan priests bringing a drugged thirteen year-old girl to the top of a mountain and making a sacrifice of her. These people had minds that I can’t possibly fathom and likewise they wouldn’t be able to fathom mine. Not that mine is more “advanced.” It’s just tuned to a different world, a world that would be incomprehensible to them. No doubt future people will wonder how we, in our time, came to have such alienating outlooks and behaviors. And if we were to time travel to their world we would find unbelievable not just the technologies but how people had integrated themselves with those technologies.
Came back here today to read this for a second time (also revisited Part One). Thank you so much for the thought and care (and time!!) you put into these pieces!