Some thoughts on Living with Technology
I worry about my mind, which I can tell, despite my homely attempts at self-improvement, has gone fallow, unexercised and lethargic. The scrolling brain is just not the same as the brain that reads, falls in love, strolls, and this is something that I think most of us are aware of, but subtly and regularly normalise and repress because it’s too depressing: proof positive that the human animal is rather easily hacked and turned into something approaching a cyborg.
I’ve been going through my notes each day. Looking at the things I’ve highlighted, the articles I’ve saved and the ideas I’ve paid attention to. Even going through my journal there is a recurring theme of the daily struggle to coexist with technology.
I was born at a time when many people didn’t have a computer in their homes, let alone their pockets. And so I remember a time before the internet, mobile devices and social media. I love technology, but I also long for a nostalgic time when it didn’t hold such a central place in my life. Where I was freer to daydream and think deeply.
It’s this longing that has led me to take frequent breaks from social media. I deleted Facebook way before it was cool, and until the pandemic hit, I spent a couple of years off all social media.
I’ve accepted that I need to learn to live with this technology. I think a big part of that is not letting the slower thinking, more contemplative side of myself atrophy from underuse.
Spending just these few short moments building a daily writing habit feels like a step in the right direction.
