Hi Adam, I've been reading you for a little while and enjoying your posts. By way of brief introduction: Navy retiree here who finished with a NSW tour and deployment, so I particularly appreciate reading the stories about your military service.
This post, especially, resonates with me because I've been struggling for a while (like many) to put together a thoughtful approach to screen technology, one that benefits from its utility and enjoyment while preserving my humanity against its more reductive influences. What has been your experience so far with these strategies? Has the reduction of distractions brought about an improved engagement with the world around you (and those who inhabit it with you)?
Your suggestions are very helpful and I think most people need to start there--but I would propose for everyone's consideration that the "negative approach" (i.e. disciplining one's screen time) is only the defensive half of the battle. I believe the other half should be positive: embodied practices that cultivate one's ability to attend to and engage reality with intention, gratitude, and awe. For me, this means:
- A daily walk in my neighborhood (with NO technology and all my attention focused on the sky, trees, birds, other people etc.);
- Reading beautifully hard-bound books of literature (especially poetry, which itself is a form of attention);
- Enjoying simple tasks that I have to do with my hands (such as cooking);
- Finally, as a Catholic, frequent participation in the liturgy with all its sensual rituals and embodied practices.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share what works for me. Thank you for giving us your own great ideas.
Yes, I think getting into our bodies in the world is just as important. I'm trying harder to "batch" internet use on the laptop, rather than all the micro-uses on the phone. I will have to ask my wife and kids if I'm doing better, haha. The daily walk is huge- I usually fill the walk to podcasts/music, but I think your approach is better for connecting with the world. I think physical books are better to interact with, and bringing up the aesthetics of the artifact is important as well. And there is deep wisdom in rituals combining the senses, like those found in Catholicism.
Cognitive Scientist John Vervaeke talks about 4 ways of knowing. In the west, we usually get stuck around propositional knowing (The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th), and a bit of procedural knowing (steps to change car oil). But there's also perspectival knowing (What it's like to be a parent.) and participatory knowing (the knowing is IN the act, like the rituals you mentioned, or the walks). Vervaeke is working on an "ecology of practices" to help humans get an optimal grip on the world.
All great points. I hope you’ll share more of Vervaeke’s “ecology of practices” as that gets refined. I’m going to try “batching” my online tasks, too. That makes a lot of sense.
I should also add—as a fellow Substack writer—that I take most of my notes manually on notecards and usually write my first draft by hand as well. This is slower and by no means efficient—but it’s precisely this actual mind-body connection that I’m trying to cultivate and defend in my writing. So I try to welcome and enjoy this self-imposed limitation.
I like that idea, I will have to play with it, analogue first draft. The cards would be nice because you can reuse for future essays, like a zettelkasten type system.
Adam, thanks for the insights you provide here. I have downloaded a copy of that stack of books so I can add them to my list. I already did many of your recommendations on my phone but there are a few I have not so I am going to implement those as well. Making it boring is key. What is interesting is the amount of time we recover in our day. That combined with improved attention facilitates improved cognition. I find myself taking more notes and thinking deeper while reading whereas previously I would have been distracted by extraneous matters. I think this is a topic that will become more important in the coming years and my hope is that my children's generation is able to see and understand in the way we do. We have some remembrance of time before but my kids do not. So that i the challenge. Thanks brother.
Excellent writing Adam. I think the age of top-down solutions is ending. The "people" have spoken. They want freedom. And so when it comes to managing food, alcohol, technology, social media and other dopaminergic products, I think it's all about SELF-management now. So your prescriptions for self-regulation are right on target.
It's an interesting quandary as some seem better able to manage the temptation than others. I have to laugh at myself when I put down my phone to pick up my tablet and read a book. Or shift from my computer to my couch and keep trolling trolls. Or how I can sit in a room with dozens of people, bored out of my mind at the banal conversation and yet find deep connection online with fantastic thinkers.
Simply put, it's kind of a crazy non-binary world we live in isn't it?
Hi Adam, I've been reading you for a little while and enjoying your posts. By way of brief introduction: Navy retiree here who finished with a NSW tour and deployment, so I particularly appreciate reading the stories about your military service.
This post, especially, resonates with me because I've been struggling for a while (like many) to put together a thoughtful approach to screen technology, one that benefits from its utility and enjoyment while preserving my humanity against its more reductive influences. What has been your experience so far with these strategies? Has the reduction of distractions brought about an improved engagement with the world around you (and those who inhabit it with you)?
Your suggestions are very helpful and I think most people need to start there--but I would propose for everyone's consideration that the "negative approach" (i.e. disciplining one's screen time) is only the defensive half of the battle. I believe the other half should be positive: embodied practices that cultivate one's ability to attend to and engage reality with intention, gratitude, and awe. For me, this means:
- A daily walk in my neighborhood (with NO technology and all my attention focused on the sky, trees, birds, other people etc.);
- Reading beautifully hard-bound books of literature (especially poetry, which itself is a form of attention);
- Enjoying simple tasks that I have to do with my hands (such as cooking);
- Finally, as a Catholic, frequent participation in the liturgy with all its sensual rituals and embodied practices.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share what works for me. Thank you for giving us your own great ideas.
Amy! Welcome, fellow Navy/NSW vet.
Yes, I think getting into our bodies in the world is just as important. I'm trying harder to "batch" internet use on the laptop, rather than all the micro-uses on the phone. I will have to ask my wife and kids if I'm doing better, haha. The daily walk is huge- I usually fill the walk to podcasts/music, but I think your approach is better for connecting with the world. I think physical books are better to interact with, and bringing up the aesthetics of the artifact is important as well. And there is deep wisdom in rituals combining the senses, like those found in Catholicism.
Cognitive Scientist John Vervaeke talks about 4 ways of knowing. In the west, we usually get stuck around propositional knowing (The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th), and a bit of procedural knowing (steps to change car oil). But there's also perspectival knowing (What it's like to be a parent.) and participatory knowing (the knowing is IN the act, like the rituals you mentioned, or the walks). Vervaeke is working on an "ecology of practices" to help humans get an optimal grip on the world.
Thanks for putting those forward!
All great points. I hope you’ll share more of Vervaeke’s “ecology of practices” as that gets refined. I’m going to try “batching” my online tasks, too. That makes a lot of sense.
I should also add—as a fellow Substack writer—that I take most of my notes manually on notecards and usually write my first draft by hand as well. This is slower and by no means efficient—but it’s precisely this actual mind-body connection that I’m trying to cultivate and defend in my writing. So I try to welcome and enjoy this self-imposed limitation.
I like that idea, I will have to play with it, analogue first draft. The cards would be nice because you can reuse for future essays, like a zettelkasten type system.
Adam, thanks for the insights you provide here. I have downloaded a copy of that stack of books so I can add them to my list. I already did many of your recommendations on my phone but there are a few I have not so I am going to implement those as well. Making it boring is key. What is interesting is the amount of time we recover in our day. That combined with improved attention facilitates improved cognition. I find myself taking more notes and thinking deeper while reading whereas previously I would have been distracted by extraneous matters. I think this is a topic that will become more important in the coming years and my hope is that my children's generation is able to see and understand in the way we do. We have some remembrance of time before but my kids do not. So that i the challenge. Thanks brother.
Excellent writing Adam. I think the age of top-down solutions is ending. The "people" have spoken. They want freedom. And so when it comes to managing food, alcohol, technology, social media and other dopaminergic products, I think it's all about SELF-management now. So your prescriptions for self-regulation are right on target.
Will really try to simplify my phone apps!!
Love this one. Thx for inspiration
It's an interesting quandary as some seem better able to manage the temptation than others. I have to laugh at myself when I put down my phone to pick up my tablet and read a book. Or shift from my computer to my couch and keep trolling trolls. Or how I can sit in a room with dozens of people, bored out of my mind at the banal conversation and yet find deep connection online with fantastic thinkers.
Simply put, it's kind of a crazy non-binary world we live in isn't it?