by Carly Mayer, M.S.
Before you read this – Did you check your phone? Email? Facebook? Instagram?
We live in a day and age where technology rules our lives. We are expected to always be connected, no matter the time of day, no matter what is happening in our lives. There are expectations from our work, friends, family, and even ourselves that we will always be in touch, but is this helpful for our personal goals?
Dr. Kelly McGonigal of Stanford University says that we need to pay attention to our use of technology to know if technology is having a negative impact on our lives. She states that by paying attention, we are able to make choices about our use of technology and decide what we would like to change. Therefore, every person is going to have a different relationship with technology and we all need to make decisions about how technology impacts our own lives.
I see technology as a way of staying in touch and keeping up with work. I can reach out to friends and family and complete my schoolwork (which often requires the Internet). However, technology is also something that I see as something I must keep up with. For example, I must check and respond to my emails in the morning and I must post a picture on my dog’s Instagram daily. I find that if I do not keep up with these demands, I experience a level of anxiety that is not necessarily healthy and may in fact impede other goals, such as spending time with friends and family or completing other tasks. Rather than placing these demands on myself, I would like to make technology a preference in my life, not a need. Therefore, I will work on replacing these demands statements with statements of preferences, such as I would like to check and respond to my emails in the morning, but this does not have to happen and I prefer to post a picture to my dog’s Instagram daily, but there is no reason I must. By changing these beliefs, I can in turn change my feeling of anxiety and hopefully form a more healthy relationship with technology.
So think about it – what is your relationship with technology?
https://bewell.stanford.edu/mindful-use-of-technology
