Technology overload:

How much is too much?

Aditha Dissanayake

Not-to-do list

It is easy to disconnect, says Tim Ferriss, best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek. “The single greatest enemy of creativity is overload,” he says. “I believe creativity requires a relaxed acuity, which is rendered impossible by checking email every half hour.”

* Experiment with short periods of inaccessibility. Your life will not explode, Ferriss says.

* Leave your mobile phone at home one day a week. Saturday is a good day to cut off email and mobile phone usage. “For most people, it will feel like a two-week vacation,” Ferriss says. “The psychological recovery it offers is unbelievable.”

* Set a “not-to-do list.” Don’t check email before 10 a.m. Set intervals to check email, for example, at 10 am, 2 pm, and 4 pm Learn moderation. You don’t need to be anti-technology. “Some is good for you, but too much is really, really bad.”

Whenever she feels bored, my dog Patch yawns , turns round in circles and thump! falls onto the floor for a snooze. If I happen to be in the room, every five seconds she opens one eye, wrinkles her forehead and looks at me, as if to say why cannot I do the same? Why must I sit huddled in front of my many screens, large and small, checking them every few minutes and typing away as if my life depended on it? Why can’t I disconnect, shut down and be bored for a change? (Sigh). If only I could.

Dr. Marcel De Roos

Prof. Erantha de Mel

I confess I am a self diagnosed addict. I live and die inside the inboxes of my several email accounts, day in and day out. Like Pavlov’s dog, I react strongly when I hear the beep beep sound on my mobile phone telling me I have a new message waiting to be opened and answered. Yes, I used to have a life once, now I have several digital devices.

My only consolation is I know I am not alone. Chances are you are as much an addict as I am. Chances are your life too is a tangled mess of BlackBerries, laptops and online games.

All because of dopamine, that chemical in our brain associated with the pleasure system. Scientists believe that the constant barrage of digital information affects our brain chemistry because it increases levels of dopamine. Too much dopamine can make us addicted not only to food and drugs but technology too.

Though techno addiction is different to the other ‘addictions’ in our lives like smoking, experts say you are an addict if you have the following symptoms. The urge to pull out a mobile phone even when someone you are with is in the midst of a conversation with you; sending text messages even while your colleague is talking to you and later wondering what he had said and feeling isolated and anxious if you are offline for an extended period of time.

In addition to these symptoms some of us have become so ‘conditioned’ to digital devices that we believe we have to share our experiences electronically if we are to feel they are real, so much so that even when we are not near a computer or mobile phone, we are creating status updates or Twitter feeds in our minds.

“The overuse and addiction to portable entertainment devices, mobile phones, smart phones or laptops are root causes for physical and social disengagement” says President of the Institute of Professional Psychologists, Prof. Erantha de Mel. “People now spend a large portion of their day checking emails and visiting social networking sites such as Facebook, tweeting, chatting online, updating their blogs etc and this invariably takes away their “quality time” from what they should be doing - their main focal areas of work or studies or their time with their families.”

Prof. De Mel compares the mobile phone to a bread knife in the kitchen. “The bread knife can be seen as a harmless device. But it is more than enough to kill a person!” So too the mobile phone. “There are numerous mental health risks associated with mobile phones” explains Prof. De Mel. “Being constantly available or reachable, regardless of time and space, is a major stressor irrespective of actual frequency of use of the phone by the user.”

Accessibility also implies the possibility of being disturbed at all odd hours. “Young adults respond to peer pressure to stay up late at night using mobile phones to send texts to their friends; which can lead to sleep-deprivation - causing problems such as inattentiveness and depression.” says Prof. De Mel. “In addition, mobile phone use is a constant distraction for young adults who are engaged in educational activities and may prevent them from completing important homework assignments because they are unable to concentrate and pay full attention to what they do.”

The Dutch psychologist, Dr. Marcel De Roos, who is now residing in Sri Lanka, observes that compared with twenty years ago young people seem to be more fidgety and restless and that they spend more time indoors and less time with their peers. “In my general psychology practice I treat young adults too. In the past 25 years (the last two years in Sri Lanka) I have seen a dramatic rise in depression in this group.” Dr. De Roos says even though “Sri Lanka has its own culture compared with the West, use of mobile phones and the internet is part of a “globalized world” with its own idiosyncratic norms. Overuse of the internet can lead to isolation and depression. In order to have a balanced emotional life one should have “real live” friends instead of only the limited digital world of the social networking websites. Dr. De Roos feels “fulfilling friendships are good antidotes against depression.”

Talking about the increased use of computers Prof. De Mel, says “the social isolation caused by increased computer usage is a serious problem nowadays. Social networking is a menace, especially with young people. In my opinion, social networking sites and online chat-rooms should carry a general health warning such as - “this could raise your risk of serious physical and mental health problems by reducing levels of face-to-face human contact!”

But would this be of help? Don’t we all feel slightly uncomfortable when someone suggests we are addicted to technology? Don’t we tend to brand that person as backward, irrational or too attached to outdated modes of communication?

This ‘addiction question’ is surely something we ask only from our inner selves. Shouldn’t we be spending less time checking and rechecking our many screens and more time taking part in what used to be regarded as real life? Is there something wrong with us when we feel nervous, irritable and tensed. In other words, when we begin to exhibit classic withdrawal symptoms, if we are separated from our digital devices? Above all else, how many of us have the nagging feeling that we are somehow unable to disconnect, because the electronic devices we own have begun to own us?

Could this mean it is high time we returned to the dust covered pre technology, past? To the days of arrows and pigeons and smoke signals? Not really. Not if you heed the advice of Daniel Sieberg, the author of ‘The Digital Diet’, lecturer and broadcaster on technology issues who, in his own life, became increasingly conscious of the unhealthy hold that digital devices can have on our daily lives.

His remedy is simple. Having accepted the fact that the technological gadgets that have so thoroughly insinuated themselves into our lives can become addictive he removes all his digital devices, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, anything portable that has a screen, to another room every night. In short, when it is time for sleep, he locks them out. He won’t even let his mobile phone charge overnight in the bedroom. “If it’s there, I would have the temptation to turn it on and check it” He confesses.

Sieberg has a phrase for this kind of addiction. You know you are in trouble when “your footing in technology feels increasingly like quicksand.”

And he has a piece of advice for all of us, regardless of how deep we feel we are sinking into that digital quicksand. Like him, we should consider locking all those handheld devices that promise unlimited distractions, in another room at night. He promises that it makes a difference. “You sleep better.”

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