Do you wonder if it’s even possible to be mindful in today’s connected world? It’s so easy to become consumed with technology use while utterly ignoring the people right in our midst.
What kind of message are we sending to the humans with whom we share space on a daily basis?
The use of smartphones is still relatively new. That means there’s a lot to learn.
We can take a lesson in what is appropriate. We can stand to learn we are being excessive with our smartphone use. And we can use some self-awareness of our own tech use and how it affects others.
What kind of silent message we may be giving to friends and family with these ever-present devices that take us out of the moment?
Mindfulness, Stress and the Impact on How We Live
We might ask the hard questions. How has a lack of mindfulness due to rampant, constant tech use impacted our relationships?
- How many marriages have dissolved in recent years because one or both partners was basically absent as a result of tech addiction?
- How many teenagers have spent a tearful night having thoughts of their own worthlessness as a result of overuse of their phone and social media conversations that they couldn’t clear from their worried mind?
Mindful tech use can return us to those meaningful moments that may be lacking in our family life and may be cause for loneliness, obsessive thoughts and excessive worry.
So how can we be more mindful in our use of smartphones to take back our own time and return our attention to the people we love?
Avoid over communicating.
We over communicate when we go back and forth without having all the information up front.
The current style of news reporting actually is a great indicator of over communication. Instead of just holding the story to share what happened after it happens, the news now reports what could happen, what happened before and might happen again, what didn’t happen, and what someone thought happened.
Do we do this in our personal lives as well? Think of how piecemeal your text communication has become.
How much time do we spend telling people what’s going to happen or what we heard might happen or what we think might happen? How often do we do a play-by-play of schedules as they change in real time?
Do we tell people we’re going to text them, then text them, then message them on a different platform to say we just texted them?
Old timers remember life before the ever-changing dynamic of trying to juggle a schedule between multiple people using technology to do the work.
Avoid non-essential communication.
Here’s a great example of something most everybody does that’s a massive time suck and does nothing for our in-person relationships: tagging people on social media to compliment them and then tagging them again to say thank you.
The next time you do this, think of how all the seconds that you’ve spent tagging people and saying thank you have turned into minutes which turned into hours which turned into days, weeks months and finally years.
This is time that could have been spent having face-to-face conversations with, or sharing an activity, with your nearest and dearest.
Choose face time instead of screen time.
Avoid getting into the habit of gathering family together but then watching everyone go into his or her own world of their smartphone. This is the worst thing we can do for our relationships.
Think of how many times you’ve try to make eye contact or had a funny thought and wanted to share, only to look up and see the top of someone else’s head because they were too busy staring down at their phone to care about what you had to say.
This happens to all of us at different times. Being mindful about technology use means knowing when it is time to stay present with people in our presence.
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