Remember 20-25 years ago, when if you had a stressful day, you could come home, warm up your TV dinner, and watch an episode of Friends? Or maybe you don’t— here me out, this really isn’t about ‘the good old days’, just thinkin’—-
One episode, that was it, once a week, because there was another channel for reruns, and oh, there were only— I don’t know, like 12 channels and that was a crazy huge amount. Then, after Friends, since there was nothing on TV, no cellphone, no interwebbing, so you turned off the TV and went for a walk, made dinner, read a book, shot some hoops until the late evening news. News only twice a day. Imagine. And you could tell the difference between the opinion shows and the ‘real’ news.
Ok, so now there is content, content, content ALL the TIME. Comedians and rappers beg for us to S.T.F.U. Google it, I will be right here when you come back after diving into the reddityoutubetwittertiktok rabbit hole.
Are you feeling better? I’m not. There are days I waste with my phone in one hand, and the TV on, and maybe also a computer handy. Three screens at once. The first step to sobriety is honesty.
So I ask myself: Is all that content calming to your brain, building relationships, helping you create and and solve problems with ease and grace? No? More, more, more isn’t better?
So here it is, in print to deepen my resolve, and maybe you too— I am committing to screenfree time. Yep, for my mental, spiritual, emotional and physical health. I can be mindful and grateful for technology, but bitch, that shit don’t own me. Whew!
Tiffany Schlain, award winning film maker and author, in her newest novel, 24/6 The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, calls what we are living in now—The Age of Distraction. This continuously only paying partial attention— even if we aren’t looking at our phones right now, we are thinking about it— means we aren’t really engaging with our worlds or each other. And that is a recipe for needing constant soothing, because our healthy human selves crave connection with each other and the natural world. We need it, little microdoses throughout the day: thanking the barista, smile to a fellow jogger, a wave to a neighbor, a quick chat by the water cooler. Wait, what? Those little doses of connection, even if they seem surface, feed our wellbeing. And we are too busy staring at our phones or screens to have those moments, so our nervous system craves soothing and the addiction cycle begins.
More content isn’t a solution, but more eye contact is.
Tiffany writes, “There’s another reason face-to-face, eye-to-eye contact is important: it activates something called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is vital to keeping us healthy and alive.” When this part of our autonomic nervous system is strong, our craving for comfort is diminished, needs for addictive behavior are lessened, and we reach a sense of focus calm more easily. And, bonus, we feel more empathy. More hope. More joy.
So, how about it? Join the screen free revolution?