Reading the five books above this year has deeply impacted how I think about:
-my smartphone
-texting
-social media
-leadership at home
-leadership at work
-solitude
-stewardship of one of the greatest assets God has entrusted me with: my mind
-the costs and benefits (mostly costs) of distraction
-my vulnerabilities
I’m still processing my response and being off of Facebook for most of the month of October (2 hours only) resulted in my being calmer, less jittery, less irritable and less angry.
What these devices (smartphones, social media, etc) are doing to us and our relationships is truly at an epidemic level. I’ll let you read and decide if you agree.
The biggest realization I’ve had is that at no point along the journey of what I now unashamedly consider my digital addiction did I make a conscious decision, weigh out the facts and decide to invest a significant portion of my time, attention and frankly my life attention into these “things”. This addiction just grew with me over time. Taking a two-week break (while on vacation with my family), in addition to reading the thoughts and research of others made stop and take inventory.
I encourage you to read up on the topic and come to your own conclusions. If 10 hours of screen time (10 hours of precious life) were replaced by reading 1-2 of these books and making decisions about how you allocate your time after that, it may be a change your future self, and your present family, will thank you for.