The integration of technology into our daily lives is unprecedented. It is striking, to say the least, that such a recent phenomenon has resulted in most of what we see, hear, read, and do being on, from, or by some type of technology. As this newfound cyberspace blends further into our physical reality, health precautions should (indeed, must) be set to inform safe and effective usage of these tools. It is a more implicit understanding, but overly true nonetheless, that humans are wielding digital technologies in an unoptimized, radically harmful manner.
For example, the (over)use of social media can cause mental fatigue, depression, loss of focus and attention span, insufficient sleep, social anxiety, the list goes on. Why are we allowing children and young adults to expose their minds to what has been dubbed as “electric cocaine” or “digital heroin”? Social media is just one of the many problems developed and exacerbated by immature technologies. (Immature may offend some, but it shouldn’t. Contemporary usage of smart devices can be equated to the first time an average teenager drinks alcohol: overdone and severely consequential. However, we reduce a young adult’s initial consumption of alcohol to misunderstanding its effects and no prior exposition to it. Hence, they use it immaturely. However, some folks with a healthy relationship to alcohol can have a couple glasses of wine and function well. That is the point of digital health: a relationship to technology which puts the user in control, not vice-versa.) This blog post aims to change this unfortunate reality by providing actionable steps which promote digital health.
That digital health is warranted may strike some as unobvious. Recent history, however, says otherwise. In particular, significant decreases in attention spans and a substantial increase in depression. Both ramifications can be directly and causally linked to the effects of technology, especially on young minds (Gen Z and now Gen Alpha). Looking specifically at attention spans, anyone can observe how videos on TikTok and Instagram have slowly become shorter. This makes these videos far more easy to consume, “understand,” and share amongst networks. As a result, young people are consuming more in shorter periods of time. But this cannot be spun as efficiency. As videos become shorter, the average focus time shrinks. This results in users effectively training themselves to absorb content that is short and diluted. It has gotten so bad that the average Gen Z attention span is a mere eight (!) seconds. Can we truly trust a generation with a sub-ten-second focus ability to solve climate change, build influential businesses, and write great books that last millennia?
A balance must be restored between real life and cyberspace. Using YouTube, for example, should augment an agent to learn any domain in any capacity s/he wants. Overuse, on the other hand, leads to hours wasted consuming mindless videos that destroy your brain; electric cocaine. Most humans are using digital technologies in these immature ways (un/conscious overconsumption) which is understandable given the recency of the digital world’s genesis. Being a new phenomenon doesn’t reduce the importance of learning healthy behaviours. Managing these behaviours early sets up a positive relationship with technology for the rest of your life; and potentially how you teach your children to use it.
This list will be continuously updated with more tips and advice as they are realized. It does not aim to be exhaustive or “enough.” Digital health is quite a new topic, unfortunately or not. More research (books, articles, podcasts, documentaries) will be conducted in and around the area of study, leading to further actionable steps. Each point on this list exists independently of the others; they are not supposed to make sense when read sequentially, and they are not organized in terms of priority or relevance.
Homework
One of the biggest gripes people have is that they hate social media yet feel forced to use it. Whether for business or keeping up with friends and relatives, connections are developed and maintained by and through social media. However, those prescient enough understand that even a momentary tether to Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok can instantly result in doomscrolling and absorbing content non-consensually. Content creators who share this prescience are doubly-screwed, since they need social media to facilitate and grow their business but do not want to derive any of the health ramifications that these platforms impose. Thus, treating social media kind of like homework or a chore, something one is supposed to get out of the way just to maintain life, can be helpful in reorienting our thinking around using social networks. This reduces the fear and anxiety of using social media and losing time and productivity, but empowers creators and business owners to take advantage of the hyper-connection that social media offers.
Mind(ful)
Your alarm wakes you up from an unsatisfying night of sleep. You immediately hit the snooze and go back to dreaming about owls fighting Godzilla, until that pesky alarm rings again. Turning it off, you are greeted with many notifications: emails, texts, creator posts, and more. Instantly transported into cyberspace within minutes of awakening, this practice couldn’t be more detrimental to your mental state. We have become far too accustomed to using our devices as soon as we wake up, scrolling through our newsfeeds to “catch up” on the latest and greatest. Here’s a question for you: have you ever put your phone down after doom-scrolling minutes after waking up and thought, “Wow, I needed that, now I’m ready to tackle my day!”? Probably not. Dr. Gwendolyn Dolske talks about this phenomenon in our podcast episode together, and discusses how this act – which is increasingly becoming unconscious – of using our phones as soon as we are awake transports us into someone else’s life, and simultaneously forces us to think about how we look, operate, and feel in comparison to those we see on social media. How sinister is this? Waking up and instantly feeling dreary and not enough because you opened Instagram? The first hour of the day without technology is paramount for mental health, ditto that for the last hour, which sets up the night ahead, which influences the day, ad infinitum. Blue light from your devices interferes with sleep, as it signals to your brain (oversimplifying), “There’s light! Stay awake! It’s still light outside so don’t be sleepy!” Read Why We Sleep by Matt Walker, or listen to his many podcasts (Huberman, Fridman, Williamson, Rogan). Using your phone before bed impacts the quality and quantity of your sleep, leading to unrestful nights and subpar mental and physical performance the next day. So, stop using your phone for the first and last hour of each day.
H(ear)ing
The practicality and quality of AirPods have made not using headphones in any setting quite difficult. Especially for me, I (usually) do not go to the gym or out for walks without headphones. But this is not particularly good for ear health. Just like exposure to loud noise is incredibly damaging to our ears (front row at a concert, for example), constantly using headphones and never taking a break is equally, if not more, detrimental. Using over-the-ear headphones, turning down the volume to manageable levels, and conducting bouts of work that are headphones-free are some ways to manage this stream of damage we are putting our ears through.
Techno-Germaphobia
If you didn’t know, your devices have human and faecal matter on them. I’m sure you’ve read or heard that your phone is dirtier than a toilet seat, but what you maybe didn’t know is that the acne on the side of your forehead *might* be caused by all of that bacteria buildup. Cleaning your devices twice per day with alcohol wipes and not taking it into the bathroom with you are two surefire ways you can stop this buffet of bacteria living on your smartphone from infiltrating your body every hour of every day.
Algorithmic Mindfulness
When (doom)scrolling on social media platforms, you are always prompted to like, comment, and share content around. This is the digital culture that has evolved since the dawn of Web 2.0. But did you know that all of the content you are interacting with is being used against you? If I am liking pictures or videos of Cocker Spaniels, Instagram or TikTok will immediately begin to drip-feed more content of these fur-friends to me. Why? Through my interactions on the platform (liking, commenting, sharing), I am indicating value, and saying to the social network of choice, “This content keeps me on the platform for longer.” Think about it. You’re taking time out of your day to literally “like” something, or comment on it (regardless of if the comment takes a few seconds, you’re taking time out of your day to do it, meaning its valuable to you), or in the most obvious cases, share it – what’s more effective at keeping someone on a platform than getting them to notify someone else to get them also on the platform, and now you have two people hopefully sharing content to others, who will come on the platform, exponentially ad infinitum. So, be mindful of your interactions on social media, because they can and will be used against you,
Being Bored Is Boring
No one likes being bored. Youtube and Netflix are dopamine-stimulating, TikTok is engaging, and video games are bloody fun. But being bored is very beneficial to your health. Staring at screens for hours per day has its costs on your eyes, sleep, mind, and body. To reduce these consequences, you must try to force yourself to be bored, and mix in the practice of non-shower thoughts.
Have you ever wondered why our most interesting thoughts come in the shower? My hypothesis is that this is one of the only times where we are not using our devices, allowing our brains to run free and think about anything. Try to incorporate a practice of not using your smartphone for 10-15 minutes, and just sitting there doing nothing. Meditate for 3-10 minutes per day, if possible – avoid using an app if you can help it. In fact, try to de-tech yourself altogether. Buy a record player as a substitute for Apple Music or Spotify; read actual books instead of using an Amazon Kindle; buy a physical notebook (and pen[cil]) instead of using an iPad. All of these things are screen-less and contribute to less eye, mind, and body strain and drain.
Supplements
Technology is a tool. It is supposed to augment humans. At this moment in time, technology is controlling humans. We have to act fast and strategically to change this reality. One of the ways is to use technology to supplement reality, and not vice-versa — don’t use porn when you feel like having sex. Channel this energy into pursuing a mate, and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. The same way that cooking a healthy meal at home is far, far better than standing in line at McDonalds, using dating apps as a substitute to meeting lovers in real-life is empty and unfulfilling and unrewarding in most cases. Don’t use social media as a basis for communication, maybe call, maybe try to meet people in person. Use technology to set up meetings, attend conferences, etc. Have technology revolve around your life, and not the other way around.
Stay Single
Multitasking is really bad for you. I’m sure you have caught yourself using your phone while listening to Netflix run in the background while video games are loading on another screen…just me? Multitasking feels effective, almost like a superpower. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every time you multitask, you destroy your attention span and ability to focus. Forbes lists these three points:
– It’s terrible for business. Rather than aid productivity, multitasking hamstrings it by as much as 40%.
– It’s trying for employees. Multitasking increases stress while reducing achievement and meaningfulness.
– It’s treacherous for brains. Multitasking impairs cognitive ability and lowers IQ.
So, stay single (-threaded). From Cal Newport’s (author of the incredible book, “Deep Work”) website:
“When you switch your brain to a new “thread,” a whole complicated mess of neural activity begins to activate the proper sub-networks and suppress others. This takes time. When you then rapidly switch to another “thread,” that work doesn’t clear instantaneously like electrons emptying from a circuit, but instead lingers, causing conflict with the new task.
To make matters worse, the idle “threads” don’t sit passively in memory, waiting quietly to be summoned by your neural processor, they’re instead an active presence, generating middle-of-the-night anxiety, and pulling at your attention. To paraphrase David Allen, the more commitments lurking in your mind, the more psychic toll they exert.
This is all to say that the closer I look at the evidence regarding how our brains function, the more I’m convinced that we’re designed to be single-threaded, working on things one at a time, waiting to reach a natural stopping point before moving on to what’s next.
So why do we tolerate all the negative side-effects generated from trying to force our neurons to poorly simulate parallel programs? Because it’s easier, in the moment, than trying to develop professional workflows that better respect our brains’ fundamental nature.”
Body
Humans learned to walk on two legs and stand upright. Technology has changed this. We are crouching, slouching, and bending our backs more than ever. For what? To look at our devices. As I am typing this on a standing desk, I see my phone beside me – I can only look at it if I tilt my head downwards. Imagine holding this position for hours a day, years on end. Adding to this, unergonomic chairs to sit in for long periods of time doesn’t bode well for your back. Exercising these muscles is the only way to prevent health detriments such as internal jugular vein stenosis, caused (in part) by forward head posture. Why on Earth would we push our heads forward (and down) to the point of neck pain? Most of us do it without even thinking, due to our devices and how small they are. Thus, reducing the amount of time you are sitting in uncomfortable seats (get a standing desk or laptop stand to keep your devices at eye level), looking down at your laptop or phone can be a great start. Moreover, incorporating some neck and back exercises to help (re)strengthen these vital body parts can’t hurt.
Its inappropriate not the mention the contrarian stance a follower of these practices would be assuming. Following any point(s) will inevitably set one apart from friends, family, coworkers, etc. It will induce large amounts of FOMO. As humans we strive to fit in, and not be the outcast. This is a built-in survival mechanism. Not being in a tribe, or being expelled from one, meant certain death. Thus, those that integrated correctly, who thought and acted and lived in accordance with their local group, survived. Regardless of the period of time which we live in, these same unconscious and sub-conscious understandings that predicate survival on homogenizing with a group still exist and influence our behaviour on social networks and with digital devices.
There is no cure for this. Frankly, it is highly likely that deleting Instagram as a modern-day teenager is futile, a non-option given the contemporary sociology. Not having TikTok means missing out on the latest videos, celebrity gossip, and group chats – all extremely important since they influence the conversation that happens off the phone: “Did you see what I sent you?! Hilarious, right?” In fact, it goes much deeper than this.
Interactions within group chats influence reputations in real life. Sending unfunny memes or being inactive reduces the importance of one’s words, and overall being. Thus, children and teenagers need these digital accounts; not for entertainment purposes, but to fend off any chances at being social outcasts. As parents, this is an incredibly sticky situation. On one hand, developing a healthy relationship with technology early on is paramount. But on the other hand, reducing a teen’s time on Instagram or TikTok could cause them to miss the biggest inside joke of the year that happened on one of their fifteen group chats. Once missed, they will never be able to “get it.” This creates friction within their friend group because further jokes are developed based on this theme, which the teen is unable to grasp since s/he wasn’t there.
All of this to say that missing one or two of these ephemeral cyberspace conversations can heavily affect real-life reputations, which impact digital reputations, which biases real-life reputations, in a downwards spiral leading to being expelled from the group. It’s a tricky thing for parent’s to comprehend. Simply taking a juvenile’s phone away can tank their entire social life.
Conclusion
I published my first book, AI for Gen Z: Data to Stop Disruption, from a very simple viewpoint. I had information and understandings that didn’t really exist in my generation. This caused me to undertake the severe task of writing a book and distilling my contextualized and assimilated data about artificial intelligence to be of relevance for Gen Z teenagers and young adults. This blog post is perched on that same viewpoint but is relevant to a wider audience – basically anyone that uses technology. Imagine eating 20-30 Snickers bars a day. No amount of kale or yoga could offset the harm done to your body through consuming this many candy bars. No nutrition exists in this practice, and you would cease to exist within a very short timeframe.
We are putting our minds through a similarly dreadful, daily indigestion through our use of technology. It is cyberspace junk food, maximally addicting with no short- or long-term benefits for the user. In one of my latest podcasts, I talked with Liz Smith about the sex and drugs talk that parents have with their children at the appropriate age. These conversations between parents and children are necessary to inform minors about the harsh realities of the world, how their bodies work, what can happen in bad situations, etc.
It is becoming rapidly obvious that adding the use of technology to these uncomfortable talks between parent and child must take place sooner rather than later to inform adolescents about the perils of unrestricted and unlimited digital device usage. Remember, Big Tech does not care about the effects of social media and digital devices on consumers, even kids. Getting their amygdala’s in check is now a prime responsibility for any parent who will give their child a smartphone. Some parents (the cool ones) prefer young adults have their first sips of alcohol at home, so they can be in a safe environment on the off-chance that something happens.
Similarly, parents should opt to manage and observe their child’s use of technology before letting them be autonomous. Expecting an immature human to use highly-addicting tools in safe and healthy manners is utterly absurd; relying on words to get your point across is equally foolish. It’s the equivalent of them buying heroin from the dealer under the bridge and overdosing – they did not know better because they were not told so. Since actions speak louder than words, more responsibility must be placed on parental shoulders to have these conversations and ensure that new generations do not suffer the consequences that Gen Z and some Gen Alpha are already going through.
Our civilization is undergoing a bifurcation between the physical realm and the cyberspace realm. Discussions about laws and rules, healthy practices and addictive behaviours will be the only cure to this disease affecting every person on the planet; digital technology.