Christmas has come and gone, and for a lot of us the gift to get was an iPhone. My little niece was no different and with great pride submitted to showing hers off to everyone.
The gift that was most wanted but also a device (and not just the iPhone but “smart” phones in general) that has begun to challenge how we run our lives.The smart phone now represents our constantly “on” lives where work follows us everywhere, we always have to answer because we might miss “something”, or I have to tweet, text, or instagram everything going on around me.
I have nothing against the device and use mine a lot as well. However, one does have to ask “When is it time to unplug?” or do we ever allow ourselves quiet or down time? I say that because sometimes we spend so much time tweeting or talking to our online friends that we fail to give needed attention to the person standing right next to us. So much time is spent responding to the stimulus coming from the phone that time to really think things through is lost. In the process, we are creating a world of short attention span and worse, stressed individuals.
Businesses have begun to realize this fact as several lawsuits have put them on the hook for behavior of employees always available for emails or messages from their phones. You know things have reached a crisis point when in addition to asking people not to talk during a movie they now also ask you not to text while the movie is showing.
As human organisms we require rest periods, and constant contact sends our bodies into a perpetual state of alert much like post traumatic stress. And, strange as it might seem, leads to higher levels of feelings of isolation. Over time this is not a good thing and actually rewires our brains to accept this as our normal state, sometimes with tragic consequences. So, as you use your new gift, take a moment to carve out time to just unwind, an hour or two a day is a good start. Believe me, you will notice a difference. Your body will thank you and your stress levels will go down a little!