Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - January 22nd

For any happiness, even in this world, quite a lot of restraint is going to be necessary... ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best. ― St. Jerome

Find Your Balance. ― Kayla Kotecki

In the last couple of months, I was thinking about various television shows I watch and when I started thinking about deleting one from my DVR, I was actually scared that I would miss out on something.  When this happened, I knew I had a problem! 

According to the Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in The coddling of the American mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, they believe there is an increase in mental illness in our country due to the frequent use of smartphones and electronic devices.  They state that spending less than 2 hours on a device does not have a detrimental effect on an individual; however, individuals that spend several hours a day on electronic devices have been shown to have an increase in mental health issues.

I will be the first to admit that I need to work on my technology usage because it is so easy to turn on the television after a long day and watch mindless television or scroll through Facebook.  What makes it even worse is according to Paul Lewis in his article titled Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia, developers have learned how to use small psychological tricks that “trigger” or create a “craving” for individuals incentivizing them to continually return to their technology. 

As I have written in previous blogs, technology is very helpful and I am not suggesting getting rid of all of it.  However, now that a new year has started and new goals are set, it is a good time to digitally detox. 

Give yourself time to digitally detox from your constantly connected life, and keep your phone away from your bed. - Caroline Ghosn

CHALLENGE: Evaluate your technology usage (social media, television, etc.) and determine how you want to change your usage.  How do you plan on preventing the triggers and cravings that are incorporated into increasing usage?

Resources

Prior, Karen Swallow. (2018) On reading well: finding the good life through great books. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press.

Lukianoff, Greg and Haidt, Jonathan. (2018) The coddling of the American mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. New York; Penguin Press. 

Lewis, Paul. (2017). Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia.