I fly a lot. I know when it’s time to take off because everybody hides their BlackBerries from flight attendants when told to turn them off. And I know when it’s time to land; the same guys whip them out and scroll and type even before the wheels touch down. I guess dozens of BlackBerries help the pilot land.
Technology has its good points. Conversely, it has also screwed up a lot of impressionable people, sabotaged relationships, and undermined careers. The just ended decade also spawned a dependency—digital addiction—that differs significantly from traditional addictions. Help-seeking alcoholics, drug addicts, and smokers want to cease negative behavior. Technology addition is different. Rather than seek a cure, technology addicts have zero desire to quit; all they seek to learn is how to better manage their dependency.
The battleground for our minds in order to influence our behaviors is fierce. Each of us is exposed to about 3,000 advertisements each day, about one million a year. Live to be eighty and do the math: 80 million ads. Why this matters is simple; someone living fifty years ago saw one million ads in his or her lifetime. Technology has multiplied ad exposure eighty-fold. There are more portals to the mind than ever before and the ad industry is taking full advantage.
Ads work when they inspire us to take action. They do that one of two ways:
1. By selling a positive reward from doing what the advertiser wants, or
2. By helping us avoid a negative consequence by doing what the advertiser wants.
The arrogance of the American ad industry is unsettling; it believes the industry can get anyone to do whatever it (the ad industry) decides.
Because technology is advancing and alarming amounts of 1:1 behavioral marketing data are being compiled, business intelligence now allows companies to zero in with personalized ad campaigns for each of us. They gather this data on-line and at the checkout counter. With it, they build a vulnerability profile.
For far too many good but vulnerable people, digital dependency has caused the mind has become like an open bar. Anyone with access is free to show up at any time (by any means), trash the place, leave a mess, and not pay a dime for having been there. The mental burden for cleaning up the mess of others is totally ours.
The mind need not be an open bar. To prevent relentless emotional clutter, we must police the mind’s access. Doing so makes perfect sense. After all, if we don’t look out for ourselves, who will?
A friend of mine is now paralyzed from the waist down, confined to a wheelchair. He used to be a rich, smart Harvard lawyer. But that was before his car drifted off the road while he was distracted by texting. His car slammed into a bridge abutment.
The bridge won, he lost, and now he’s a nice guy with scrambled marbles who watches TV. Texters are 16 times more likely to be in a bad accident than other drivers. Despite that, people do it anyway. They are addicted yet kid themselves that they are not.
Just because technology has access to your mind does not mean it has the right to be there. Your mind does not need (nor require) every cell-divided gizmo or application spawned by technology.
Repetitive behaviors create habits. Habits are easier to form than break and digital addiction is an easy but dangerous trap to fall into. Once ensnared, its hypnotic, instant gratification nature makes it a very difficult behavioral habit to modify.
Be an aware and vigilant custodian of your behaviors. Do not confuse “digital busy” with being “productive.” The world is full of busy people but short on productive ones. Create a high-performance mix of thought and behaviors. Discover what works best for you and protect your formula.
People are, to a large extent, herd animals. Like sheep, the choices of a few determine the direction of many. The choice of where we want to be in the flock is a personal one. We can lead, follow, or get out of the way.
The more technology has invented things to simplify our lives, the more complicated lives have become. Be a student of smart behavioral choice, and then challenge and coach others to become the same.
As we head into a brand new year, decade, and era of still-evolving technology, commit to yourself one big resolution: Use your tools; do not let your tools use you.