Making Friends With A Smartphone: How To Gain Control Over Your Life In The Age Of Technology

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

For the first time in human history, we have reached a point where the creation of our hands has more control over our being than our own will. The level of technology development today is much higher than our understanding of how our own psyche functions. The culture of the 21st century encourages us to transfer responsibility for our lives to anyone but ourselves. We have forgotten how to trust ourselves and began to rely on the conclusions of experts.

Absent-mindedness, inability to concentrate, to take responsibility for the vector of your life, self-flagellation, procrastination, perfectionism, aggravated by unhealthy competition in all spheres of life, are serious obstacles to a happy existence that we face every day.

By indulging our inability to resist the temptation to click on a notification, we have become more inclined to rationalize our behavior. We convince ourselves that the steering wheel of each of us is in our hands; we tell ourselves that our opinion is really ours, and that we act with the desire to realize our individuality. However, is it really so? Where does so much negativity come from then? Where does the crisis and unhappiness come from, a deep sense of unfulfillment? Why apathy, lowered hands, seeing the meaning of life in “doing nothing”, disappointment in oneself, lack of faith in one's own strengths, understanding oneself as a small screw, unable to significantly influence corporate life mechanisms?

In an attempt to protect ourselves from the feeling of not realizing our own potential, we rationalize our behavior, our stress, our emotions and feelings. We convince ourselves that envy is white, that competition is healthy, that the ideal is unattainable; that we have to plow and plow to get the body from the picture.

In this age of technology, it is more important than ever to maintain a sense of presence. I have repeatedly talked about the sense of presence and its practical discovery in articles on awareness. You can read them on this site.

Today we will analyze the three main Internet causative agents of strong negative emotions that are being rationalized, but in fact questionable in terms of bringing into our lives an understanding of our place in the world - resolving existential issues that concern us. It will be about these sources as a means of entertainment. These sources are also dangerous in that if they are used incorrectly, a person whose mental state is weakened can unconsciously and subconsciously aggravate his suffering, hiding behind excessive rationalization. Let's see how these sources manifest themselves in our lives, and how their use can be converted into an educational pastime.

Social media: healthy use

First, it is important to soberly analyze whether you are addicted to social media.

Track what you are doing online and what emotions accompany your actions. If the need to go online is dictated by work, this is one thing. If you justify flipping through the feed and “visiting” the pages of “rivals” by “curiosity,” this may be rationalization. If the last sentence caused you strong disagreement, this is definitely rationalization.

As a next step, ask yourself why you are posting certain things. What reactions do the countless selfies of your friends and colleagues evoke in you? Do you post similar photos with the aim of “sharing”, although the main reason is the fear of being rejected by the collective, the fear of “not being like everyone else” (although on the surface the mind may give out the opposite attitude through which one's personality is viewed “I am not like everyone else”)? Would you like to make your friends or followers jealous? Do your publications give you a sense of superiority?

I talk in detail about healthy spending time in social networks in the articles “Healthy competition - myth or reality” and “How to get off the social network”, which can also be read on this site.

News: a healthy attitude

Let's take a look at what news on news portals is. First of all, any news is some objectively happened event + a reflection of the point of view of the author who covers it. Good coverage of an event means telling the story of a fact, giving the reader / viewer the opportunity to interpret. Often, fact and interpretation in the news are intertwined in such a way that it becomes impossible to separate them. To stop suffering from buckets of negativity, you need to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff - or in other words, fact from interpretation.

As you read any text (including this one), ask yourself the question: what is fact, and what is interpretation? How does the interpretation make you feel? If you want to agree with the author's interpretation, why are you doing this? Is it because of the dogmatic attitudes that society has loaded into you in the process of your growing up? Or is it your personal, direct experience? What was the last time you did this? That helped? It's time to think critically!

Emotional Invaders: programs that cause negative emotions; reality shows, television broadcasts, and videos that focus on grabbing attention by appealing to the desire to "bring justice, judge the people and stigmatize the wrong."

Healthy attitude: do not look, do not click. Don't get involved!

The main danger of emotional invaders is that, although they are simulated and filmed as entertainment material, the emotions they evoke are real and have a significant impact on our perception of reality. Therefore, the main step is to lead yourself consciously through watching the program of such a plan, honestly admit and feel all the emotions to which the program provokes, and next time ask yourself the question of the need to consciously stimulate negative thinking by immersing yourself in a world of injustice, throwing rotten tomatoes and others. joy-gaiety presented as entertainment for the consumer of the 21st century.

Taking responsibility for your life is a fundamental shift in consciousness. This shift is the key to transforming negative emotions into creative energy, which is necessary for the transition to a happy life. Don't let gadgets and gadgets dictate how you live. I am the master of my thoughts. I am the master of my thoughts. I choose how I live and how I feel. Not less - disagree!

Lilia Cardenas, integral psychologist