To fully refund our time from the metric measuring: ‘time-on-device,’ is to reverse it, thinking of the time spent in real life; It asks to put critical thought about the minutes, hours, days and weeks that add up to the sum of who we actually are? In social media, are catalogs of old friends/family from decades past actually bringing us any closer to these friends or closer to any new friends that come along? What desires drive us to insta capture every life moment, to post and to check results for, what does that feeling bring us? Has our need for community and belonging been reduced to this system of refreshing for comments, unlocking to see who replied last, and what do these actions even amount to in the greater purpose of actual connection? Do these actions actually line up with the intent of having friendship? Or have they been marketed to us, essentially becoming a well trained habit, just a mere scratch to the itch for a wound that never heals?
Bad habits die hard, but the path for peace of mind is also hard. It is the quandary of picking which “hard.” What’s overdue is the needed calm that our minds require. To find collective, eye-to-eye, human effort outside of insufficient signaling, reduced by chat bubbles. To find modern solutions to our habitual digital lifestyle– that reluctantly, like it or not, we have to coexist with long-term. An obviously unfair fight between us– our individual free will vs. the giant tech media companies, pumping billions of dollars into the relentlessness attention machine. Stopping at nothing to keep your attention for their gain at the expense of your mental health.
There is a tired, increasingly growing group of individuals looking for group action against this very fight. Clearly at the center of this day and age are huge red flags, making mental health more than common language, it’s a mainstay topic with an immediate need to get a grip on better mental health practices, now or never.