Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Social Media Surge

In a few short years social media has radically changed our lives. From Facebook to Twitter to iPhones, with their dozens of apps, the world we pay attention to, day in and day out, has changed dramatically in just the last few years. And so has the way we pay attention. We now spend much of our day watching small screens, and pecking out texts on tiny keyboards. The changes these media have brought to our lives are fun, interesting and enhance learning. But there is a downside too – and as many readers of this blog know it has to do with how we pay attention.


Some people say they feel addicted to their iPhone or their computer. They can’t wait to leave dinner or class and update their Facebook or read their latest email or Twitter. There’s comfort to totally absorbing yourself in a task, but many people say it makes them feel uncomfortable after they are finished. In a newspaper article one woman wrote that after hours on Facebook “she felt completely numb, drained and devoid of humanity.” It’s a feeling that video gamers commonly report.

The addiction part of it comes from emotional rewards of social media. We become completely absorbed in Facebook and for that time we forget our physical and emotional pain. But as soon as we move out of the cyber world to we feel the discomfort that comes from the hours of narrow focusing on screens that ramp up our arousal and cause tense neck and face, muscles, eye strain, anxiety and even depression.


The answer to this addiction and pain is to change the we pay attention to phones and computers and other screens as we use them. We over-focus, grip the world of electronic screens with an attention style that is far more effortful than we need. We can relax the way we pay attention by gently centering our gaze on the screen in front and at the same time admit a simultaneous and effortless peripheral awareness of the environment around the screen – your work environment, living room or classroom. Admit an awareness of space between you and the screen, the space around the phone or computer, the space all around you. Try it now as you read this and you’ll find out why we say that changing the way you pay attention is the fastest way to reduce stress.