Jargogled Impressions.

Technology is a tool that lets you lead the life you want and enables you with the resources to get the life you desire. But when technology tries to take over your life, through intended or unintended behaviors, then it is time to take a fresh look at how and why you are using the technologies that dominate our lives today.

Our ability to leverage technology the right way is not a natural ability. We learn to find our way around technology. With some, we can adopt and thrive on it sooner than on others. But with most, we are right in the middle somewhere, using it not too well and not that bad.

But when our use of technology is driven by an imperative that comes from outside of us, the triggers that originate from someone other than us – as is the case with social media tools and technologies, then we are tilting closer to the end of the technology use spectrum which cannot really end well.

I think that when the “gets” from this use of technology becomes overpowering, results in a loss of focus and attention, and ends up sprinkling our efforts on a wide variety of dimensions, then we need to evaluate our use cases of these technologies.
What are the use cases of social media? It depends on the social media in question, sure, but the broader theme is information (duh). We are seeking information on our family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, connections, business and political leaders, celebrities, sportsmen, and others whom we have come to respect or like to know more about. The whole ‘influencers’ tribe is predicated on our natural affinity for seeking entertainment, education, awareness, and identification through the world around us.

It seems to me that this new world we have created in the digital realm – this parallel world that is increasingly taking market share away from the physical world, is challenging the mental models we have created through the familiarity of the physical world. Its inherent characteristics and culture is so dramatically different from the “legacy” world, that we, the end consumers, have teething problems adjusting to it. As it should be, for we have only lived in this new world since the past 2-3 decades only, compared to the thousands of years we have survived and thrived in the legacy world.

Taking the analogy of thinking about our physical and digital worlds as ‘competitors’ – each evolving and attempting to dominate the attention market, I think the duopoly is like the two ends of a spectrum. The digital nativists at one end embracing the digital realm (for many came into this world when this world was growing exponentially) and the Hobbesian derelicts, rejecting the tools and technologies altogether to stay connected and rooted in their familiar world.

As consumers of these two worlds, we drive our own interaction and engagement. But, when there is collusion between the digital world and ‘society’ – which acts as a state-sponsored push for individuals, then the game becomes rigged. In simpler words, when the society around you determines that adopting the digital world is the right thing to do, then you – the consumer, lose the power of being one. And instead, your selection is thrusted in your face with seemingly no alternate option.

But is that really the case? If we become power users instead, and jailbreak this dependency, then we can consciously steer ourselves away from the flow, and effectively create a balance that works for us. Like using Uber for business travel for the rewards, and Lyft for personal travel for feeling good.

One way of doing that with social media is to purposely restrict our intake of it, despite the motivations and pushes. It would involve trade-offs across FOMO-hood, digital shunning, trolling, and information that is curtailed, but would impart individualism, self-realization, control over our time, and lowered inhibition.

Restriction does not mean cold turkey quitting though. It means being deliberate about our consumption habits. It means understanding where our triggers are and taking that extra step to stopping ourselves from capitulating to the endless scrolls. It means laser selecting the information that we do want, and then sandboxing our environment so we do not partake in anything else. Social media, in this case, is like the limitless serving of carbonated drinks – you should know where to draw the line in this excessive sugar intake.

This inundation of information from every corner of the internet culture is not going to stop anytime soon. New tools that will rise and influence society more, in new modalities across web, text, chat, audio, video, etc., will continue to generate and propagate more information. More information is not always more insightful, nor is it always more accurate in describing the world around us. As we have learnt with health, more information does not translate into better understanding – especially in complex systems. We would do well to remember that.

Tactically, the best way to do the detox is to make yourself accountable. But that alone is not sufficient given the power society and the people around us have on the life we lead. Creating an external restraint – through time blockers, detox days, restricted screen time, and finding joy in out-of-network places, becomes necessary.

Alternately, you can root for the underdog here and find ways to support it through purposeful and directed focus on being closer to the physical world. In our attempts to being global, we have lost the art of looking local. Our communities have thrived in the digital world but have stagnated in the physical one. We widen our eyes when we widen our aperture to the wider world but close our ears to keep a pulse of the immediate neighborhood. We look at Perseverance, as it navigates the alien world and provides us a peek at the intergalactic space, and revel in the impunity of the natural world. But we forget that alien worlds are hard to find here on earth as well – as individuals, we have become aliens to the next-door neighbors too. Only if we could find the time to recognize this and do something about it.