Pay Attention… but not to your smartphone!
I took my Daughters dog for a walk in the local park this morning and couldn’t help but observe how people were paying more attention to their phones than to human beings.
Observation 1. A mum or nanny maybe (I didn’t ask) in the playground pushing a little girl in the swing with one hand and phone in the other hand, looking into it non-stop whilst pushing the swing in auto-pilot, almost oblivious to the child.
Observation 2. Another young woman in exactly the same mode, pushing her child in a pushchair with one hand and phone in the other, reading and typing stuff right the way along the path, until she reached the end and had to make a turn, a quick look around and back to her phone without even acknowledging the child.
Observation 3. A young man walking towards me on another path, deep into his phone and walking like a robot that was being programmed where to go, until my Daughters dog rudely interrupted him. For all I know, without this minor distraction, he may have walked from where he started to where he was going without consciously realising how he even got there.
What is it that so many people, even when they’re not working, have to have their minds occupied (almost by aliens it seems) rather than be still with their own thoughts or in conversation with other human beings?
Henry Ford was famously quoted as saying “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it” so maybe it’s just easier to let the smartphone do the thinking, who knows.
Whatever the case, are people teaching their children to live in a virtual world and give so much of their attention to a gadget that was designed to help us and give us more control of our communications but seems to be the other way around and is controlling us?
Is it any wonder that stress levels in children and teenagers is so high and how much is technology contributing to this, e.g. according to www.mentalhealth.org.uk it’s estimated that 1 in 10 children have clinically diagnosable mental health disorders.
Just like in the workplace where people take more notice of the example leaders set rather than what they say, it must surely run true even more with parents and children.
When are people going to learn to switch on to switching off when it matters, especially when it comes to family or leisure time?
I write about what it is we value in life and how to pay more attention to what matters but I think it goes even deeper than this, we need to break some bad tech habits and this means using a far better kind of AI, namely: less Artificial Intelligence and more Attitude Intelligence!
What do you think?
Reece
Author of the Strong Minds Book, Online Course & Podcasts
