You click out of Netflix after watching a whole season of a show, only to realize how late it is and that you have to go to work the next day. What happened to the time?
Many aspects of technology hijack our attention so that we become disconnected from the present moment. We can easily lose track of time and our surroundings. We might be caught up in habitual reactions rather than making time for thoughtful responses. We might communicate in ways that do not actually serve our basic human needs or those of others. We can start to have a sense of not being fully connected to our lives and the people in them. We can lose our connection to our bodies. We can lose ourselves.
Furthermore, many of us actually use technology to disconnect on purpose. Our phones and computers are easy portals to other worlds. Humans have an innate drive toward comfort and ease, and there’s nothing wrong with having some escape routes when things get too hard or overwhelming. But that drive toward ease may prevent us from doing the hard, messy (and necessary) work that it takes to turn toward what…
