We’ve been led to believe that technology and stress go hand in hand. What was supposed to make our lives easier instead has us attuned to the ring of our phone 24 hours a day, wired to respond to emails instantly, and trained to scan rather than read.
Much has already been written about how our reliance on technology is raising heart rates around the world. The pressure to deal with – let alone read and respond to – hundreds of emails a day is an issue that didn’t exist prior to 1998. And in our blog Less email more life, we share some handy tips on how to stop the stream of endless dispatches to your inbox.
However, a Harvard University psychology professor, dubbed the “mother of mindfulness”, says we should not be too quick to see technology as the bogeyman.
At the Harvard Forum for Public Health discussion, Managing Stress – Protecting Your Health, Dr Ellen Langer told the audience that it is never the fault of the technology or gadgetry that we feel stressed, but rather the thought that we impose on ourselves when using technology.
For example, she says, we may be thinking, “I have to be more proficient, [but] oh my God the machine is not working at this moment, my email is down, the world is going to fall apart…” The reality is, says Dr Langer, the machine is just not working for a brief time.
Also speaking at the forum, Laura Kubzansky, Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard School of Public Health, backed up this thinking.
“What technology has changed is our expectations, so now everything has to be done quicker and sooner: ‘You should hurry up and respond to someone because they sent you an email five minutes ago and how come you haven’t responded yet?’ It’s not the technology itself but the expectations that have come up around the technology about what you should be able to do.”
Not only is technology not the cause of stress, says Dr Langer, but it can be an antidote. She believes that if we engage with technology mindfully, rather than mindlessly, we can use technology to help reduce stress.
3 ways technology can encourage mindfulness and help reduce stress
Dr Langer, who is currently developing a mindfulness app, explains that when you are mindful you are in the present and actively noticing new things. She gives the following examples of how technology can aid this practice.
1. Apps
An app that checked in with you periodically on how you are feeling ‘at that moment’ would firstly help you realise that you are not always stressed, and secondly, if you are stressed, would lead you to question why, and this would lead to a search for a solution. “That search itself would probably be mindful and be good for your health, and you might actually come up with a solution.”
Try these apps – GPS for the Soul (only on iTunes), Headspace (on the go)
2. Creative activity
“If one is on their computer and they’re being creative – mindful – that is going to be good for their health,” says Dr Langer. Writing, designing, film-making and art-making are all ways of practicing mindfulness using technology.
3. Social connection
Social networking apps and programs, and games such as Words with Friends, can be used mindfully. “There’s a sense of a relationship that’s easy to facilitate,” says Dr Langer.
In his recent rant with US Comedian Conan O’Brien against “toxic” smart phones, comedian CK Louis blamed the technology for destroying empathy and our ability to ‘just be’. “You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something,” he said. “That's what the phones are taking away … the ability to just sit there like this. That's being a person, right?”
But if the Harvard professors are right, it seems we can keep our technology and have our best selves, too. All we need to do next time we switch on that device, is also switch on our mind.