Are we addicted to distraction? Or are we just desperate for silence?

Mindful Discussions
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This short video hits hard: 81% of Gen Z wishes it were easier to disconnect from digital devices.

While watching this video- it’s like a light bulb went off for me. The generations that created the digital tools Gen Z (and other generations too) now struggles with, whether it’s Steve Jobs (born 1955), Tim Cook (1960)or Mark Zuckerberg (a millennial), they didn’t grow up with smartphones in their hands at age 10. They experienced the world before constant connectivity. They knew life before notifications. AND they know what it means to be fully present, to focus, to be bored even. Meanwhile, Gen Z inherited these tools as default, not as inventions, or a new gadget that came out, and now they’re left fighting for boundaries in a world where “offline” barely exists.

AND they’re asking for tools to help them focus, disconnect, and reclaim their minds.

This is exactly why Mudita exists.

Check out the video & let me know if you can relate.

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Definitely agree with this, being gen X I grew up in a world without all this crap, I miss those days, I really do, I know tech is useful and it has done wonders but it also ripped our souls out and moved us further away from each other than ever, I worry about my kids growing up in this digital world, I am just trying to teach them the importance of an offline present life

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something to consider as well, the likes of steve jobs, the iphone was not created initially for the purpose of always connected constant dopamie hits through like buttons and infinite scrolling. he announced it as three products, a widescreen ipod with touch controls, a mobile phone, and internet communicator. then said these three things were actually one thing, the iphone.

even facebook i believe changed their notifications for example to create an alert type response, it wasn’t designed that way initially.

the iphone has some controls now around managing use, but its honestly not enough, its to hard to use (and yes, despite it being easy to use, any barrier to use, even just not being enabled by default, is a psychological battier that can be hard to overcome)

part of it is also societal. checking your notificainots, being instantly available is seen as normal when its not, and is really unhealthy for you. but the average person is checking their phone for notifications every 20 minutes. thats the “norm” and its really unhealthy.

people (we also) need to normalise the idea of not being available all the time, that picking up a paper for news and slowing down is sometimes actually better for your health than instant news notifications and an indefinite stream of every bad thing on earth in real time.

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Steve Jobs famously stated, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

I recently read an article and it was mentioned that Steve Jobs used to say that some people say, “Give the customers what they want .” But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do.
That let him to make products that he felt people SHOULD WANT.

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That these things basically take souls away is my worry for the kids. Unless you make a ton of effort, kids wont have a chance to experience just being present the way we did.

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100 percent I make sure my kids experience a offline life, that is a parents responsibility

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Very good points and a very interesting discussion.

Im desperatly trying to backpedal my own digitalization due to addiction problems. Doomscrolling, constantly checking for updates and mentions, answer messages within a minute (even in group chats), mindless surfing without intent.

I went for a walk today without headphones and a smartphone for the first time since 2011. Just my Kompakt in my pocket. Listening to birds, watching nature, talking to neighbours. Wonderful experience. But damn was it hard.

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Hi !

I think that even without mentioning phones and tech and all that jazz, the rythm of our society drives us to an ever growing impatience. Every billboard, street corner urges us to buy something that’ll seemingly make us happier. Information moves at a crazy pace. Sometime it’s useful and actually important, but fake news also profit from that speed. Being born in 1998, I haven’t had the pleasure to really know a world without all the tech we have access to today. However, I sense an inability to just sit in silence, noticing the thoughts, and the breath, or just pausing the mind and body for a bit. It links to the constant distraction from smartphones, computers, etc. of course, but I think it’s also tightly related to the fact that everything goes A LOT faster those days.

We barely have any time anymore. When we do, it’s for the screens. The online status, the indulgences of many kinds, anything that could pull us away from our bodies and our minds.

Even when I try to slow down, I get that weird rush of anxiety / dopamine / restlessness urging me to do something (very often turn on a screen) to calm it down.

I read an article about kids born in the smart devices era that @urszula published on another topic. Fascinating article. It’s kind of sad that the numbers the writers mentions -altough really alerting- weren’t really surprising. At some point he talks about the fact that if you’re not in on the hype, you’re casted away. And I believe that this need to be “in” comes from two things : the FOMO, but also and more importantly the HATRED of being on one’s own for more than 20 minutes. I think there’s a great fear of that looming solitude in each of us, pushing us to run from ourselves in pursuit of…

Take a minute to reflect on that. By reaching for your phone / computer / tablet, what is it that you pursue ?

I think that question opens a great opportunity to reconnect with one’s true self, and one’s body. I find that it helps to recalibrate and realign.

We all have a reason to reach for the devices. More often than not, the reason is : Nothing at all. But the belief that we need it is so strongly engrained in our minds, that we can’t refrain the urge.

That was my rent, thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.

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Bro, not only Internet, have a look back. We have dishwashers, laundry machines, laundy dryers, electric ovens, stoves with fire/heat at a snap of your fingers, central heating, tons of time saved on all that and what?
We don’t have time to touch grass or meet with friends???
Come on!
Time management is a missing skill in the first world.
Or… maybe it’s better to live without all that at times or make kids try to live without that at times so it’s easier to appreciate all this technology we got used to even before smartphones became a thing and started eating all those time savings of ours.

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I’m confused, so just to clarify, are you saying that even before smartphones and all that, we already had the feeling of not having enough time, even though we had technology like dishwashers and stuff ?

I agree on the fact that seeing how distracted and all over the place we tend to become, it might be easier to take a huge step back ! I wouldn’t go as far as living by a firepit, hunter-gatherer style, but you know, cut things back just enough so I’ll appreciate it more.

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I would say it began with the industrial revolution, with not the invention of time, but with the common usage of it. People thought of time differently as they do now, spatially. In other words, the perception of time is flexible, and while most lived as slowly as possible pre-industrial revolution, they now live as fast as possible.

This is why I by any means possible, remove the clocks from my phone. That could be a piece of tape even on the top of the screen. With the Kompakt I hope to use a custom launcher in some way to block the time. Just because I need to send a text message, doesn’t mean I need to know what time it is on my time off, it’s in the name, time off. When I’m working, I wear a watch, that’s my time on.

The pandemic allowed this discovery, the first day I went without knowing what the time was, had been longer than all of my life proceeding it, greatly.

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I mean even pre-smartphones things were meant to help us yet we got so used to them we get upset when they fail because it takes so long to do things without them… And so it was for generations. :wink: It’s easy to get used to anything that is good.

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