Digital Distraction: Maintaining your creative edge in the midst of distraction

Digital DistractionOptimizing your human-ness

@benklocek

Maintaining BalanceThis is a story about maintaining balance between being online and offline, and experiments I’ve been doing to explore it.

Human-nessEmpathy, play, nuance, beauty, big picture

“Creative genius is not the accumulation of knowledge; it is the ability to see patterns in the universe, to detect hidden links between what is and what could be.”The Nature Principle, Richard Louv

Machine-likeAnalytical, logical, information-centered, efficient

“Computer systems are doing much of the mundane work you used to do, thereby (in theory at least) freeing you up–indeed, requiring you–to do the creative work these systems can't do.”How to Get Ideas, Jack Foster

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I hit the wall...from information fatigue.

Tired, poor ideas, scattered thoughts.

Go on a Media Diet

(Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst)

Relief!

Then I got an iPhone.

*....*...*..*.***

It started to fill up every spare moment in my day.

********My wife said,

“You’re on it all the time”.

Is that a problem?

We are all cyborgs, now.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html

Let’s explore what happens when we are deeply immersed in the online world.

Important PointsExtension of physical self: second (virtual) self, external brain, overcome time & space (mentally)

Creation of self: time for self reflection, co-creating each other via connections

“The most successful technology gets out of the way and helps us live our lives.”Amber Case

Concerns

I’m concerned that the cost of these conditions is higher than we realize.

Cost of distractionRelationships ✦ Skill of conversation. ✦ “What’s on my phone is more

important than you.”

Cost of distractionChildren✦ Our example (It’s ok to ignore each

other)✦ Intimacy (never alone together)

Cost of distractionEducation✦ Information elevated above knowing.

(Quantitative over qualitative)✦ Distraction (Avg. highschooler

sends/receives 4000 texts a month)

Cost of distractionBusiness✦ 57% of office interruptions are digital

($10k/employee/year)

Cost of distractionMental Health✦ Mental fatigue✦ Using executive functions✦ Downtime is to the brain, what sleep

is to the body

Cost of distractionThinking✦ Training my mind for quick-

thinking, distractibility over long-form, thought-consolidating thinking

✦ We’re training our minds for distraction, not focus

*|*

My experience:

Split attention, two selves, time fragmentation.

Lack of mental self-sufficiency and power of observation. “I’ll just google it”.

Lack of depth in life and thinking.

So, what to do?

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”E.O. Wilson

Experiments• “Dumb” phone (“Distraction” folder)• Tech sabbath/vacation• Bedroom sanctuary (no phone in the bed)• Time for rumination (preferably overnight)• Take a hike

"Off the Internet, everything is connecting you with the world. Everything."The Nature Principle, Richard Louv

Wisdom• A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink• More books, fewer blogs/articles• Think first• Garden• Encourage the artist• Inner quiet (intuition, dreams)• More resources: bracia.com/human-ness

"What we think, we become."Buddha

"If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it. "Lyndon B. Johnson

Thank you.

bracia.com/human-ness

@benklocek