Name: Jeremy Streich

Age: 22

Location: Washington D.C.

“But maaa! All the kids at the bus stop have cell phones”

After much ado, and much sixth grade maneuvering, I nagged my way into a shiny new Razr flip phone. Damn, I was cool then. Now, more than ten years later, I’m not quite as cool for having a device. In fact, I have the same shiny Apple one as more than 90 million others in America, and am just as tethered to it. In fact, I only recall two occasions of having been without it for an extended period — and only one of those was by choice, just a month ago. But we will leave this for a later blog post, today I will briefly discuss the flight of the cell phone and the reasons it is pulling my/our minds apart.

Of course, comparing the cell phone of 2007 to that of 2017 is like comparing apes to homo sapiens. However, it’s true that all types of primates have opposable thumbs, just as all iterations of cell phone have instant messaging capabilities. This, for me, has been the downfall and distraction of my young millennial life. It all started with AIM. Despite being an active and involved elementary schooler, there was scarcely a day that I did not retreat for even a few minutes to the virtual world for an exchange with friends (who were probably licking cheez-its from their fingers down the street.) Over time, this habit did not only remain, it accelerated. In middle school, I had my first “smart phone,” what seems like ink and feather by today’s standards, and with it grew the flurry of buzzing message notifications day in and day out.

Seventh grade, eighth, ninth, tenth, the years rolled on as I quit old sports and picked up new ones. Started different clubs and fell out from others. Yet, the communicative habits continued to grow. From the Razr, to ENV 3, to an Android, and finally into the iPhone, I was rapt in the feedback loop of send and receive, send and receive, send and receive.

But why do I dwell on such a harmless convention?

Because now it’s giving me a wicked hangover.

In Dr. Adam Gazzaley and Larry D Rosen’s recent book, The Distracted Mind, the neuroscience and cognitive psychologist team up in an effort to untangle technology’s most recent pivot into the attention grabbing, mind cluttering, undefinable ether. They hold, through digestible research and examples, that it is these very vices we crave most (notifications, social media, and constant task switching) which have corroded the modern brain’s ability to focus. Almost immediately in the book, it becomes strikingly clear that we have turned a historic, life altering tool into a callous distraction. Fortunately, this work is much more than a jaded criticism of modern culture, but actually offers a variety of tricks and tips as to how we can reclaim agency over our minds. More on this later.

First, I want to delve a bit deeper into an eerily accurate prediction in the late Alvin Toffler’s “technology wave theory” (referenced by Gazzaley). In “Wavelet 4.2,” Toffler, a distinguished writer and futurist, forecasts the rise of instant messaging (and email) as the defining characteristic of the Information Age. He recognizes that, in the short run, being constantly in contact with friends, family, and the entire outside world is a groundbreaking technological gift. However, regardless of how revolutionary and expediting it may be, The Distracted Mind makes it evident that, often, speed kills. And now is when I admit that speed has become my personal malediction.

It really was not until reading this book that I realized the abrasions instant messaging has caused me even through my venture into adulthood. I have always been a “good communicator.” A reliable responder both in person and virtually. On the surface this feels like a positive characteristic, but as a young adult having lived in three states and two countries, these far reaching relationships are actually tearing my brain apart. With social media, we can never fall out from our friends and are always expected to respond posthaste. Yes, I know this may sound like a whiny 22 year old complaining about having too many facebook friends, but the root digs much deeper than that. It is the speed that kills. Ever since middle school I have rushed around in a frantic malaise, slashing carelessly through assignments, scrawling down hurried cover letters, abandoning half finished projects for new ones, and sending out handfuls of email even before responding to old ones.

Now a graduate swirling in a internal existential dialogue, I am consciously aware of what this attentional tug of war is doing to my peace of mind. I need to network to make connections, but those very same pings are dissociating me from important tasks like applying for jobs and doing relevant research. But still, even knowing this, whether I am driving, writing, reading, or working, each notification is a pang of guilt and an unconscious scream of: “Read it. Read it. Read it, don’t keep them waiting!” Every day it’s like standing beneath a raging beehive, tying my own hands behind my back and letting my brain get pinged from all directions.

So where’s my epi pen?

For now, there is no attentional epi pen to return our sanity, but this fact is quickly changing. The folks at a young startup called Siempo and experts at Gazzaley Labs are actively working on disrupting the comfortable behavior patterns that we are unaware to be undermining our endeavors.

Siempo’s Pause mode — a DND timer with back doors and autoresponders (the new AIM away message)

How often do you open your phone, scroll around a bit, and then decide on which app to open? If you’re like most, it’s a fairly high amount of the time. It’s disconcerting that people, myself included, have relented to such a state of passivity when using a device intended to be a tool. What Gazzaley Labs and Siempo’s Android launcher are trying to do is return agency to the user. To re-establish our control over technology, rather than its control over us.

For the time being however, we can inoculate ourselves with a variety of “homemade” tactics from experts like Tristan Harris, Adam Gazzaley, Larry Rosen, and Cal Newport. The following are just a few with which I have experimented and enjoyed:

1. Do not disturb

This feature mutes most notifications, but still allows them to show up on your screen when opened.

2. Delete your social media apps, but not the accounts.

Use your browser to access the pages so you do not get caught by the scroller’s snare.

3. De-pocket.

I’m doing it right now. Having your phone touching your body removes the temptation and actually allows you to focus more clearly. Currently, mine is out of sight (but in reach of course, I am a millennial after all).

4. Blind Unlocking

Close your eyes for a moment after opening the phone. This will keep you from seeing whatever notifications you have missed and allow you to activate whatever task you had in mind.

5. Mindfulness

I’m a believer in the mindfulness movement reintroduced by some of the most influential modern thinkers such as Marc Benioff, Tim Ferriss, Oprah, Sam Harris, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter… Thinking about thinking is more important than you think (see what I did there?) So thinking about your phone usage should have a direct relationship.

Of course, these solutions are mere band-aids stuck over thousands of embedded attentional scars, but there is no denying that becoming aware of its role in your life is the first, most painful, step in remedying the disengaged mind. Instead of waking up each morning with painful, distracting bites, unknowing that your updates are dismantling your day rather than informing it, you can watch the swamp and perhaps evade a few stingers. To shed the metaphor, I personally have found the above tricks to be wonderfully effective. I know that in vilifying the very progress that has transformed the planet, I must sound like the ugly duckling who cried chicken little. But I want to clarify that this is nowhere near the truth. I’m an aspiring tech journalist, or serial entrepreneur, or product manager, or neuroscience researcher, or author (damn stingers..!) who is fascinated by all things progressive. To me, that sounds like the opposite of a luddite technophobe. So now, after seeing millennial technophiles begin to question their relationship with technology, the question must be begged, “what should you think?”

So from one confusedly-secure-undecidedly-certain millennial to (maybe) another, next time you use your phone, just do me a favor and think about it.

Or just get Siempo.