Paying Attention
I tried leaving my phone at home this morning when I went to walk my dog. I made it to the elevators down the hall and pushed the button before instinctively reaching for my pocket to fill the gap in the seconds before the doors opened.
It’s hard to truly notice how much of a deathgrip these devices have on our attention until you remove them from the equation and feel the vacuum they leave behind. The further along we got, the less automatically my hand moved to my pocket, looking for the reassurance of the weight in my palm. The more attuned I became to the itch in my brain that caused the movement to begin.
We all know, ostensibly, that these devices are slowly but surely sapping us of all our attention. Filling in all the gaps between conscious thought and emotional reaction to life around us. But the deceptively dangerous thing about it is how they nurture the apathy that keeps us from doing anything about it.