Some time ago I took part in a webinar organised by Rakuten Marketing on the impact of emerging technologies in retail. I took this opportunity to ask the attendees to reply to one simple question: ‘Do you take time away from digital devices?’ A staggering 40.8% said ‘No, never’!!! 25% said ‘Yes, daily’ and 22.4% said ‘Yes, weekly’.
It begs a question: Do we have enough of technology interfering with our lives or are we looking for more tech interference? And what effect technology really has on us?
Wherever we go our smartphone is accompanying us. More often than not, it is probably in our hand while we read the latest email, checking who likes us on social media or playing games. In her book Mind Change Susan Greenfield reported that in 2013 25% of smartphone users in US can’t remember a single moment in their life when their mobile wasn’t close by.
Our mobile can certainly be useful but it can often be a distraction from real life. In the same book Susan Greenfield mentions that in 2012 24% of US social media users missed out on an important event in their life because they were busy updating their social media profiles on that event.
Note one common thing amongst all the users of smartphones – they hardly use them to make actual phone calls. Their communication is purely virtual; no social skills required.
This is worrying. There are already alarms going off about significantly decreasing social skills amongst kids and young adults. These youngsters have been raised in a digital world and have not had a chance to develop their basic communication skills. That combined with a lack of education in interpersonal relations means that a growing number of world population is unable to form meaningful relationships or even pass a basic job interview.
In 2012 Ofcom’s report The Communications Market Report informed that only 63% of people speak with someone face to face daily; the majority of the remaining population only uses various verbal communication like texts, instant messaging or email.
Susan Greenfield in her book Mind Change quotes interesting statistics that ‘Facebook was implicated in 33% of marriage break-ups in 2011, up from 13% in 2009’.
If social media and other technologies are really so bad for our social skills and relationships, why won’t we stop?
You know these scenes you sometimes see in a restaurant of the whole family having dinner and all of them are on their devices? How do we expect kids to know how to behave in social interaction is even their parents don’t want to have an actual conversation with them?
So they grow up speaking with their parents via text, their friends via Facebook and the only real interactions they have are in school. These are for that matter often unsuccessful as they can’t manage speaking in front of the whole class, so they run into the safety of their mobile screen where they excel in communication.
So since they understand the virtual interpersonal language better than the real-life interpersonal language, they prefer to stay in their comfort zone. It is also easier to understand a number of likes than an expression on someone’s face. So why would they make their lives harder?
This is of course just one of the reasons but it starts to shape the picture. The younger individuals or those with naturally lower social skills start to excel in the virtual world so they don’t want to leave in the normal world.
Yet, when we look at the growing popularity of multi-sensory immersive experience, food culture, festivals, music gigs, stand-up comedy and other real-life events promoting human interaction, it’s worth noting that perhaps our organisms are pushing us to leave the digital behind and come back to basics.
One manifestation of that is a growing popularity of digital detox. And no surprise! According to some stats, 62% of us check their phone first thing after waking up! Not kiss their partner, stretch or even properly wake up but check their phone.
Some people are so addicted to their phones and apps that they need special apps to make them stop using their other apps. A little mind-boggling but true. For example, Freedom app helps you by switching off your internet access for a previously agreed time. And SelfControl app bans you from websites which you feel you are addicted to.
And this is just a beginning. For the last 3 years we have seen a growing popularity of digital detox travel with more hotels introducing special packages combined with meditation, yoga, outdoor adventures and activities designed to spend face-to-face time with other people.
For example, at the beginning of 2015 Four Seasons in Hampshire launched The Digital Detox Spa Retreat – a one day package where you surrender your devices on arrival, receive a special detox smoothie, enjoy a full day use of spa, a special massage, private yoga session and a specially prepared launch.
Digital detox also spreads to working environment with more companies creating special digital detox programmes prescribing a number of hours a week or a day free from any devices as well as an array of trainings and activities helping to improve human connection and creativity. And for a good reason.
Numerous studies has shown that a constant connectedness impairs our memory, learning, social skills, relationships, creativity and various professional skills.
Eric Schmidt, the chair of Google, once said: ‘I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of overwhelming rapidity of information… is in fact affecting cognition. It is affecting deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry that we are losing that.’
This is also visible in the sales of physical books. Recently Waterstones decided to stop selling Kindle books following 5% rise in the sales of the physical books in December 2014 at the expense of digital books.
So perhaps we are starting to be in fact tired of virtual living and looking for ways to come back to the actual living.
What is your experience? Are you tired of digital living or you want more of it?
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