Unplugged: How to Live Mindfully in a Digital World (2014) by Orianna Fielding, Book Review

 
Unplugged: How to Live Mindfully in a Digital World (2014) by Orianna Fielding

I'm very interested in digital psychology and the impact of digital technology on our mental health for many years now (for book and TED Talk recommendations, see lists below). And thus, the research studies and the author's personal experiences, although some of the ways she processes the information are unique, are very familiar to me. But it's good to be reminded over and over again about the dangers of digital addiction and how to overcome it. "Connectivity now permeates every area of our lives," admits Fielding, an internationally recognized designer, and curator, "Technology has enabled us to do things that ten years ago were unthinkable. It has also completely changed many of the elements that historically formed the foundation of how we lived and interacted with each other, increasingly adversely affecting the most essential and fundamental elements of being human."

Granted, every one of us thinks about technology differently and our level of relationship to it is based on our context, purpose, and personality. Let's talk about the most familiar digital technology: social media on the smartphone. For example, I don't see any intrinsic value in Twitter because either the post is too trivial (mean useless to know) or abridge (mean too short to care). But for my friend, Peter, Twitter is just right because he only wanted to know the main headline of the news. I also see Instagram as non-beneficial for me because the Algorithm is specially designed for users to post as frequently as possible and looking at mosaic photos of myself is just weird (plus, I'm not that attractive). But for a businesswoman like Sarah, Instagram is a haven for potential customers, or Jilian, a social media model, Instagram is just the right tool to showcase her beauty and beauty products. However, I love YouTube and Spotify the most because they contain wide treasures of knowledge, information, and entertainment. I spent most of my time here as opposed to any other social media. So you see, the way we choose to connect with our social media is not one-size-fits-all. But do you know what is our similarity? To some degree, all of us are ADDICTED to social media - and generally speaking, to digital technology. Like it or not, "we are living in a culture dominated by digital excess."

At the beginning of the book, Fielding outlines 12 signs of digital overload. Let me share the 6 most frequent signs, in summary: 1) Checking your digital device first thing in the morning, getting up during the night to check for messages, and regularly using some form of digital device in bed; 2) Checking your smartphone while at a meal with others; 3) Spending little time outside and often eating at your desk; 4) Getting distracted easily even when offline and finding it hard to focus fully on one task; 5) Being with family members but spending most of your time at home on a device; and 6) Wanting to stop using your smartphone and finding that you just can't, having tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to control your internet use. If you can identify with most of these signs, then, this may be a good indicator that it might be the right time for you to unplugged, undertake a digital detox, and reboot your life. I believe it is not about letting go of digital technology altogether - in fact, if we want to progress in life, we must embrace it - but making sure that it doesn't control our lives. Fielding equips: "Unplugging is not so much a disconnection as a fine-tuning of our inner search engine. Practicing moderation by finding a workable balance between our digital connectivity and our real-life connections is the key to establishing a new digital protocol where we can be fully present in our lives while using our digital devices as the tools they were designed to be."

There are lots of tips, suggestions, and very useful digital detox ideas outline in this book. It is never mean to be taken literally but you must try it for yourself first (remember, our context, purpose, and personality are different) and modify your practices along the way. Think big, start small, go deep. Perhaps, you can join me in reading books!  #1Book1Week ��� I know you can if you read this till the end ��� It is possible! ��������� #Unplugged #DigitalDetox #LeadersAreReaders #GrowingLeaders #LetsMakeReadingCoolAgain

 Book and TED Talk recommendations:

 1) Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success In a Distracted World (2016) by Cal Newport. CLICK HERE to read my review. Watch his TED Talk too.

 2) Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive In a World of Distraction (2018) by Christ Bailey. Watch his TED Talk too. I didn't manage to write a review for this one.

 3) Six Books on the Effect of Technology & Social Media. CLICK HERE to see my recommendations.

4) TEDx Talk: What You Are Missing While Being a Digital Zombie by Patrik Wincent https://youtu.be/TAIxb42FjwE  

5) TED Talk: Connected, But Alone? by Sherry Turkle https://youtu.be/t7Xr3AsBEK4 

6) How about documentaries? Let me suggest two - Disconnected (2017) directed by Salem Habbous https://youtu.be/MkIiMP--1h8 & The Social Dilemma (2020) directed by Jeff Orlowski on Netflix

FB Page: https://facebook.com/LEGASI.tv/                      
Podcast: https://anchor.fm/LEGASI.tv/              
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LEGASItv/    

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

 

 

My Dear Busy Friends, it's Time for Silence and Solitude

Our minds yearn to be busy. When we are with others, we tend to occupy ourselves watching, listening to, communicating with, and responding to those around us. This is good. In fact, it is normal – as long as we know when to withdraw. Jesus was a busy man, just read the Gospel stories and you know that He was the busiest person in the New Testament. Yet every morning “Jesus got up and went to an isolated place to pray” (Mark 1:35NLT). He practiced silent and solitude. After Richard Foster listed numbers of Bible verses where Jesus intentionally seek silent and solitude to pray and rest, he writes in his book Celebration of Discipline: “The seeking out of solitary places was a regular practice for Jesus. So it should be for us.”

One of the great blessings of silent and solitude is that they offer time for us to become who we really are – at least, this is what I get from my personal experiences. They take us away from the demands and obligations others lay on us and give us relief from the constant pull on directions by our employer(s), family members, friends, and many kinds of extra ‘baggage’ modern life has created. They allow us to get rest from the modern burden of multitasking (at this writing, I’m thinking about how restless are our young generation today). The constant need to meet the expectations of others draws us away from our true selves and deafens us “to hear the divine Whisper better”. I can assure you my friends that you can’t remember who you are when half the world is compete for your attention – for that, you need silent and solitude.

I hope you ask me “How?”, if yes, good. Here are some example you can do to practice silence and solitude.

Silent

“In a noise-polluted world, it is even difficult to hear ourselves think let alone try to be still and know God. Yet it seems essential for our spiritual life to seek some silence, no matter how busy we may be. Silence is not to be shunned as empty space, but to be befriended as fertile ground for intimacy with God” (Susan Muto).

Some practice includes:

§  Setting a period of time in which you don’t speak but isolate yourself from sounds (other than perhaps the sounds of nature)

§  Driving or commuting without the radio or CD prayer turned on

§  Leaving the TV off (and your internet and phone off); spending time in silence with God alone

§  Exercising without attending to noise; listening to God

§  Having personal retreats of silence

Solitude

“We are so afraid of silence that we chase ourselves from one event to the next in order not to have to spend a moment alone with ourselves, in order not to have to look at ourselves in the mirror” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Some practice includes:

§  Giving God time and space that is not in competition with social contact, noise and stimulation

§  Taking a retreat

§  Observing Sabbath refreshment by abstaining from constant interaction with others, information and activities

§  Addressing your addiction to being seen

§  Communicating with God alone while you walk or run by yourself

§  Practicing disciplines alone: study, prayer, examen, journaling and so forth

Friends, take time for silence and solitude. It refreshed your soul, reenergized your mind and refocused your attention. You will find ‘you’ and most important of all – you can hear God’s gentle whisper more clearly. It is about who are you in God and who you are in relation with others. Thomas Merton, a Christian mystic writer once observes, “It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them… solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say”.

Silence and solitude are not easy to come by.

It takes time and effort to seek them out and cultivate them.

But once we find a place for them in our lives,

we immediately realize how much we’ve been missing without them.

God help and be with you.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

*Quotes and practice suggested for silence and solitude above are taken from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us. Pg. 106 and 111.

Fasting from the Media (especially Facebook)

A man wakes up from his bed. Brush his teeth. A toilet session. A cup of coffee. Turn on the computer – Facebook. A woman wakes up from her bed. Check her phone. Message inbox. Click, connected – Facebook. A young teenager wakes up early morning. Staring at the ceiling. Thinking, constructing a sentence, shares it on Facebook, then pray. A minister wants to catch up with the latest ‘happenings’ in the virtual realm. A quick glance. Get hooked. Procrastination. Online daily – Facebook. A worker comes to office early. Works overload waiting to be done. End of the month, payment is on the way. Works still overload. Promises delivered, prayers for dream job answered, praise the Lord. Tension release method – Facebook. Works are on the waiting lists. Delayed.

 ................................................................

Before I suggest anything here; I just want you all to know that Facebook (specifically), media (generally) is not bad or evil. Media is a form of communication. Media is morally neutral. It can be used for good or evil. Some media content inherently positive and uplifting, other content destructive and damaging. In my opinion, no matter how positive content they are, if one expose to it for a long time without any break in between – it can be utterly damaging. In excess, even good things (such as food) can become bad.

May I suggest? Take a break from the media. Intentionally choose for a period of time to avoid electronic media's intrusion into your life. This includes television, radio, movies, videos, movies, the Internet (especially for Malaysians, the Facebook), computer games, video games, etc. Richard J. Foster in his book, Freedom of Simplicity, suggests that we should fast on a deeper level. Fasting that helps to give us balance and to reveals the things that control us. He wrote (pg. 165),

“It is amazing to me that many people are incapable of going through an entire day concentrating on one thing. Their train of thought is constantly broken by this demand or interruption. The newspaper, the radio, the television, magazines – everything interrupts their concentration. Some people are so enslaved to television that if it were taken away they would go withdrawal. Obviously, there is a time for the various media, but there is also time to be without them.”

How? Half day or 1 day without media is a small, practical, achievable step to begin. For me, I will normally choose Sunday or Saturday. There are times when I can’t due to my nature of work so I choose any day during the weekdays. Bottom-line: set a day apart for fasting. Then, go one step further – try 1 week fasting and so on. No doubt this probably strikes you as a pretty radical and revolutionary idea, but take heart, this joyful absent from the media (I say ‘joyful’ because you shouldn’t legalize this fasting as what people normally did to all other fasting methods) will free you from the bondage that had interrupt your concentration.

THINK BIG. First and foremost our fasting should be focusing on God. Our longing, desiring and thinking are to concentrate on God. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). START SMALL. Use this time of fasting for prayer; meditate on the Word of God or just reading the Bible; go for silent and solitude; reconnect with friends, family and neighbors (face-to-face conversation). GO DEEP. Don’t be a slave of the media. They are supposed to serve us for good, not the other way round. NOW. Take time to fast from the media… it is good for your soul.

Week 66: Unplugging - Leave the Virtual World of Technology

We often operate under the false assumption that being technological savvy means being a good communicator and that being in control over technology tools means being ‘interacted’ with one another. We sometime neglect the important of face-to-face communication with one another as a human being.

Virtual World of Technology

Phone calls, sms’es and hundreds of e-mails demand for your attention. In the midst of conversation, you wonder if there anyone writes comments on your Facebook status this morning. While doing a project, your mind anxious about dozen of unchecked e-mails for the past 3 hours. Your friends came to chat with you, but text messages bombard your inbox, so you ‘interact’ without even looking into anyone’s eyes.

For most of us, our normal life consists of hours of staring at a computer screen doing works, playing games and/or surfing the Internet. Today, people use the Internet an average of 30 hours a week and keep the TV or radio on 7.9 hours a day…  we need to get unplugged… you and I need to get unplugged from virtual reality and get out from these addiction of technology from our lives. I said about get rid of addiction from technology NOT get rid from technology. Unplug, and look into the eyes of another human face – see the beauty of God’s creation!*

Unplugging 

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun defines Unplugging as a ‘call to leave the virtual world of technology (computers, e-mail, Blackberries, cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc.) in order become present to God and others.’ It is a practice that requires us to be fully present to and in the uninterrupted quiet with God. It intentionally seek to create space for face-to-face encounters with people and above all, it gives us freedom from addictions – to cell phones, video games, the Internet (especially from Facebook, YouTube and Twitters etc.)

Here are some practices of Unplugging that you may want to consider doing;

·        Unplugging electronic devices that interrupt relationships

·        Refraining from the use of e-mail or not checking e-mail on the weekend or have a no-e-mail workday (Saturday and Sunday are my no-e-mail days)

·        Abstaining from social networking for a day or two (or even a week)

·        If possible, communicating face-to-face rather than virtually

·        Devoting time and attention to others without interruption (Stop any electronic interruptions and look them in the eyes)

Personal Interaction by a Personal God

Unplugging recognizes that personal beings are created for personal interaction by a personal God. We need to be in the presence of each other… We need to be touched… We need nonverbal signals… We need uninterrupted spaces in our lives for the presence of God and the presence of others.

Do you want to unplug?

Do you long to be in full present with God?

Do you want to restore uninterrupted interactions with others?

Can you cut one hour a week from using your computer or any other digital connections and use that time to be in the presence of God or others?

I hope you do… I pray you will, and you know; all of us need to Unplugging sometime.

THINK BIG As a human being, we need a face-to-face interaction

START SMALL Choose to Unplug

GO DEEP Enjoy, touch and see the beauty of God’s creation!

 ............................

*I’m in dept with Adele Ahlberg Calhoun for his insights in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform Us. Most of my materials for today’s article are from this book. Sell your bed and buy this book!