“If we survive as a species, it will have nothing to do with what
we’ve invented, developed or manufactured, but everything to do with what we
know in our deep cores about being good mammals.” — Brooke Williams in Half Lives
In spring the senses wake up again. Skin kept
under wraps all winter is once again massaged by the warm fingers of sunshine.
Eyes accustomed to browns, grays, and whites are startled by the screaming
yellow of daffodils and marsh marigolds, the purple heads of crocuses, the
tender green of new leaves everywhere. The scent of daphne pools around the
front door to greet anyone who comes up the sidewalk. Excited birds trill and
twitter as they slice through the yard in pursuit of newly emerged bugs. Spring
peepers out at the wetland a quarter mile away set the air vibrating as I lie
in bed at night.
Springtime reminds us that reality is
multisensory and that we are animals of the senses after all. And yet more and
more of us spend increasing amounts of time in the unisensory world of the flat
screen. The world that passes before us there seems rich, varied, and
entrancing, luring us from one fascinating vista to another, as if we were
monkeys swinging through the forest from branch to branch. It’s easy to become
entranced and even, frankly, addicted. In fact, “online activities tap into
deep neurological mechanisms,” reported an article in the New York Times (23 July 2012) entitled “Silicon Valley Says Step
Away from the Device.”
According to that article, “Eric Schiermeyer, a co-founder of
Zynga, an online game company and maker of huge hits like FarmVille, has said
he has helped addict millions of people to dopamine, a neurochemical that has
been shown to be released by pleasurable activities, including video game
playing, but also is understood to play a major role in the cycle of
addiction.” At the same time, Schiermeyer
believes “that people already craved dopamine and that Silicon Valley was no
more responsible for creating irresistible technologies than, say, fast-food
restaurants were responsible for making food with such wide appeal.”
I depend on screens for my livelihood. Google has given me
this blog to post my thoughts on. I compose them in front of a screen, and
you’re reading them from a screen. But I also feel as if my brain has been
subtly rewired by the Internet. It’s harder for me to concentrate than it used
to be, and I feel a subtle sense of anxiety that I’m missing something if I’m
not checking my email and following every link that friends forward to me. I
draw the line at Facebook. I don’t have a Facebook page because I’m afraid it
would tether me further to the computer. And given a choice between sitting
here and going outside, I’d rather go outside.
The New York Times
article goes on: “Stuart Crabb, a director in the executive offices of Facebook
. . . said his primary concern was that people live balanced lives. At the same
time, he acknowledges that the message can run counter to Facebook’s business
model, which encourages people to spend more time online. ‘I see the paradox,’
he said.”
The gist of the article is that while Silicon Valley
executives see the dimensions of what their products are doing to people’s
brains, while they see “their collective power to lure consumers to games or
activities that waste time or distract them,” and while they feel uneasy about
this, they aren’t sure they have a responsibility to do anything about it. Some
of them don’t see a problem, even though the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible on
mental illnesses, plans to include “Internet use disorder” in its appendix this
year. They are telling people we need to manage our lives to make sure we slow
down and step away from our screens.
Richard Fernandez, an executive
coach at Google, “said the risks of being overly engaged with devices were
immense. ‘It’s nothing less than everything,’ he said, adding that if people
can find time to occasionally disconnect, ‘we can have more intimate and
authentic relationships with ourselves and those we love in our communities.’”
And with nature, I might add.
I took time off last year to
attend yoga teacher training. I want to remember how to be embodied. I want to
spend more of my time in a multisensory world and less in a unisensory one. I
want to remember that what happens in the garden, what is happening right now
while I’m sitting here typing away, is ultimately more important to the future
of the world than what I’m doing right now.
I’m with Brooke Williams. I think
if we survive as a species, it won’t ultimately be because of our smartphones,
tablets, laptops, and flat screen TVs. It will be because we have remembered
how to be good animals, animals who come out of our dens in the springtime, sniff
the air, and let ourselves feel stirred by the beauty of the earth.
