Instagramming Ourselves To Death

Cultivating The Art Of Mobile Mindfulness

I could theorize and offer scientific evidence all day long. I can give you source after source, anecdote after anecdote on why our obsession with our phones is killing us.

But here's the real truth:

Your fixation with your phone is killing your ability to do work that matters.

While your phone harbors many tools for good, when you get caught in its tractor beam, you’re in for a swamp of time sucking molasses.

I come to you as a fellow addict. And trust me, I’m in deep.

Like a wi-fi enabled lab rat, I’m obsessed with the Pavlovian rush I get from a text message or a Facebook like.

On countless late nights, my wife will turn over in bed to see the glow of a screen illuminating my face.

Wife: “What are you doing? What time is it?”

Me: “I’m taking a Buzzfeed quiz to see which Friends character I am. It’s super important. Go back to sleep.”

If you’re an addict like me, you know deep down that your obsession with the small, insignificant things is destroying your ability to tackle the stuff that really matters.

Now I'm not advocating for cutting yourself off from 21st century technology. If that's your path, I commend you, although it won't be mine.

What I am advocating for is technological self-awareness. I call it Mobile Mindfulness.

Mobile Mindfulness is the art of deliberately tempering your relationship with technology.

Mobile Mindfulness is using technology for its benefits and then stopping – relishing in your ability to thwart addiction.

Mobile Mindfulness is challenging yourself to resist technology in the moments where you know it’s teetering on becoming a vice.

Use technology. Milk it for all it’s worth. Then learn to put it down, cultivate real human relationships, and get to work.

- JZ