How is your relationship with your technology?

Has tech helped you become a kinder person? A more productive employee? Does it tend to get in the way of your life? If you are like the majority of Americans, you feel distracted by your smartphone and have likely made genuine attempts to improve this relationship. Perhaps you tried a digital detox, started charging your phone outside the bedroom, or took somebody’s recommendation on how to use your device “more mindfully.” Maybe you even picked up meditation, or set rules with your partner to stop checking email at dinner.

Problem solved? Of course not. We’re talking about your entire digital life. There’s no magic pill to fix a decade or more of learned behaviors and cultural norms. It is a long term, arduous, manual, custom and iterative project to set up your personal environment and systems for success. It’s just as challenging to then develop the discipline to resist the triggers that find the chinks in the armor you’ve created. Why is something this important SO damn tricky?

Silicon Valley has figured out how valuable your attention is. It’s time you do so too.

It is important to reiterate that the largest consumer internet businesses today are predominantly advertising platforms, which means they make more money the more time you spend on their products and services, because that enables them to sell more ads to businesses that want to sell you more stuff. Consumer web is such a goldmine because it has something that the other marketing channels like TV, radio, billboards and print don’t have: plenty of information about you, the consumer.

Advertisers can now reach you through these platforms 24/7. And they are — Snapchat is on a hot streak addicting children, Netflix openly competes with sleep. Practically all of people’s free time now goes toward screens of some sort (represented in red in the bar chart below).

source: Here’s why it feels like you have no free time (Business Insider). Yellow = non-screen personal time.

In the absence of government regulation or widespread consumer education and backlash, the tech giants have neither incentives to make their products less addicting, nor demonstrated regard for how their products impact the wellbeing of humans and society. The attention businesses profit from your time spent on screen, but incur zero costs for polluting your mind and the social environment.

This will hopefully change as consumer sentiment shifts and we learn more about the broader health and social implications. Several European nations have already taken the lead on allowing employees to safely disconnect after hours. Like any other trend, there will be early adopters and there will be laggards. It is important to note that the vast majority of folks in Silicon Valley do not intend on creating such negative externalities; new technology will always present both opportunities and challenges, and the rate at which tech has evolved in recent years means that harmful effects are not immediately evident to the public until after an organization has cemented a business model and responsibility to shareholders.

For a deeper primer on the attention economy, persuasive technology and the surrounding debate, give the following a read:

Reclaiming attention, one touch at a time.

Human attention is a limited resource. We only have so much of it in a day, year, lifetime. If we’re now spending a majority of our time on screens, then the design of those screens significantly influences our life experiences. Though there are inspiring movements gaining steam and bold entrepreneurs working on creating better alternatives, the conundrum is that we sill rely on profiteering behemoths for the utility they provide us with to get around 2017. To be sure, they provide some incredibly positive utility, but because of established business objectives, they also need to employ harmful tactics that often get in the way of our personal objectives. We can’t yet fully ditch the misaligned digital world we live in.

But we do have choice in how we use these tools; we can start making changes to counteract the overstimulation, reclaim our valuable attention and sense of agency. We can raise our awareness of our digital behaviors, recognize which products are providing value to our lives, and build better habits for how we interact with them. It won’t be easy, as there are thousands of engineers on the other side of our screens dedicated to grabbing our attention and holding it for as long as possible, but together we can share notes and figure out what truly makes a positive, balanced relationship with technology. Similarly to the organic food and environmental movements, we can support the organizations that help us use our resources more thoughtfully, and fuel the cultural change necessary to alter corporate priorities. The makers of our most popular products are currently doing little to help, so let’s take matters into our own hands.

We’ve compiled a fairly comprehensive list of tested strategies and vetted products you can try today. Each is designed to change your environment or triggers so you can have greater control over where and how you allocate your attention. If we’re spending nearly two thirds of our waking lives on screens, then we ought to take the time and energy to get the balance right.

Please note:

We’ll divide these strategies into seven sections: The Big Four, Smartphone, Desktop, Real World, Internet of Things, Alternative Practices, Continuing Education

We’re not the first to create such a list so we will link out to our favorite recommendations when appropriate. Interested in sharing your list of favorite techniques? Get in touch.

We’ll update this list as the ecosystem continues to evolve.

DISCLAIMER: THERE ARE ENDLESS BANDAID SOLUTIONS AND LITTLE DOCUMENTED KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS AND FOR WHO.