Three Ideas for Turbulent Times

Metadata

• Author: Nat Eliason
• Full Title: Three Ideas for Turbulent Times
• Category: #articles
• Summary:: The author shares three ideas for coping during uncertain times. First, he warns against doomerism, which is a way people manage anxiety by predicting terrible outcomes without real evidence. Second, he suggests that a digital detox may initially lead to sadness or anxiety, but it’s important to resist the urge to return to screens.
• URL: https://ckarchive.com/b/p9ueh9h2dx5gksm6ggw6kapn5o333hr

Highlights

• A digital detox will probably make you feel sad or anxious (but do it anyway): If you’re anything like me, you may have felt the urge in recent months to get more serious about relegating digital technology back to its proper role as a tool – something you pick up and use when it serves your purposes, then put back on the shelf, instead of marinating all day in the disordered world of the terminally online. Yet it’s striking how often this topic gets written about as if the moment you take social media off your phone, or begin a ritual of leaving your phone in the hallway at home, or switch to a dumbphone, you can expect to feel immediate peace and happiness. This is unlikely! As with other compulsive behaviours, we use aimless scrolling to distract from, or to paper over, emotions we don’t enjoy experiencing, especially sadness or anxiety. So it’s a good bet that when you step away from your devices, you’ll be spending more time, at least in the near term, with the emotions they were helping you avoid. Fortunately, in most cases, just knowing to expect this will enable you to resist the temptation to scurry back to the screens. (And incidentally, if you doubt that you use technology in this emotionally avoidant way, simply take some context where you’d usually always listen to a podcast or music – such as driving, or commuting by subway, or going for a run – and try how it feels not to do that. Weirdly harder than you expected, right?) (View Highlight)