Are You Staring at Your Phone?

I read an alarming report in The Guardian last week on how the geniuses who helped make technology so addictive are now disconnecting from that very technology. It’s as if the chef at a great Italian restaurant was afraid to eat his own food. 

In the piece, Paul Lewis profiles tech designers like Justin Rosenstein, who “banned himself from Snapchat, which he compares to heroin,” and imposed limits on his use of Facebook. Rosenstein, it turns out, is the Facebook engineer who created the “like” button, which he described as “bright dings of pseudo-pleasure.”

Lewis calls these rebels “Silicon Valley refuseniks alarmed by a race for human attention.” They are designers, engineers and product managers who, like Rosenstein, several years ago “put in place the building blocks of a digital world from which they are now trying to disentangle themselves.”

These refuseniks, Lewis writes, are most concerned about the psychological effects on people who, research shows, touch, swipe or tap their phone 2,617 times a day.

On average, humans touch, swipe or tap their phones 2,617 times a day … The addiction to technology has been with us for so long it’s become old news. We’re so addicted that we’re numb to the fact that we’re addicted.

Let’s repeat that: On average, humans touch, swipe or tap their phones 2,617 times a day.

As well as addicting users, Lewis cites the concern that technology is contributing toward “continuous partial attention,” severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off. “Everyone is distracted,” Rosenstein says. “All of the time.”

I found the piece truly alarming, until I noticed something even more alarming: It was five years old. The story was dated October 2017. The addiction to technology has been with us for so long it’s become old news. We’re so addicted that we’re numb to the fact that we’re addicted.

Of course, it helps that technology has an extraordinary side. When we have most of humanity’s knowledge at our fingertips, and can keep in touch with anyone at any time, and can be entertained at will, what’s a little addiction?

But that’s precisely the point. We get addicted to stuff that gives us easy pleasure, and the more pleasure we get, the more pleasure we want. How do we set limits to limitless pleasure?

In her cover story this week, Journal columnist Judy Gruen weighs in on this modern dilemma. Among other things, she delves into the personal story of Molly DeFrank, whose efforts to deal with her own kids’ digital addiction led to her book, “Digital Detox: The Two-Week Tech Reset for Kids.”

In her cover story this week, Journal columnist Judy Gruen weighs in on this modern dilemma. Among other things, she delves into the personal story of Molly DeFrank, whose efforts to deal with her own kids’ digital addiction led to her book, “Digital Detox: The Two-Week Tech Reset for Kids.” Gruen writes:

“When a kid starts melting down when their device is taken away, it’s not even their fault, DeFrank says. ‘You are watching a dopamine crash in real time. The games and apps are designed to release so much dopamine receptors that the kids are numbing out. That’s why they think real life is boring and why just tweaking the number of minutes you allow a child to be online each day doesn’t always help.”

The line “that’s why they think real life is boring” especially got to me. When the rich complexity of life can’t compete with continuous dopamine hits from ever-available gadgets, where’s the future?

Gruen writes that “Curbing a teenager’s use of devices is far trickier, but DeFrank believes that ‘smart kids already understand at a certain level that their brains are being hijacked’ by their tech habits and that ‘many intuitively feel that they need parental help.’ As an example, one of DeFrank’s teenaged foster daughters had been given a smartphone by a well-meaning friend. One morning the teen was angry and upset, but despite DeFrank’s efforts, the girl refused to talk. Instead, she hunkered down on her smartphone, ‘numbing out’ by scrolling on social media, headphones on.”

The good news is that humans are resilient. When certain red lines are crossed, we adjust. We correct. Just like the Silicon Valley refuseniks who are fighting back, authors like DeFrank are digging deep to help wean us and our children from the digital drug grafted to our hands.

There is a whole movement, in fact, dedicated to “digital detox,” complete with nature retreats, meditation techniques, seminars, replacement therapies and other ideas designed to moderate our use of technology and bring more balance to our lives. 

You have to hand it to that ancient tribe 3,300 years ago at Sinai who could sense even back then that a weekly detox on Shabbat would become such an eternally good idea. Those were the original rebels.