Leaving Digital Distraction For A Life Of Focus
If I hear this phrase uttered one more time while it is accepted as a societal norm and fact of life everyone just has to deal with…. I digress. But the spirit of this title is what I present in this brief post. The better analogy might be performing surgery on yourself. The purpose of …
Continue reading “Building The Plane While Flying It (And Performing Surgery Mid Flight)”
It’s seemingly counter-productive to begin the process of retreating away from social media connectivity during a global pandemic. 100 years ago this wasn’t even a choice during the Spanish Flu, so there isn’t much to go off in terms of examples. I can’t find someone’s notes back then on how they avoided TikTok so they …
On a personal note, I find myself hounding the topic of digital retreating due to the incredible amount of wasted time I see in my rearview mirror. At first it can seem justified. The amount of blogs I have read (which as long as they are good credible ones). The amount of chats I have …
I’ve never become more aware of the strawman ‘evil rich person’ I painted in my mind than I have in recent years. Having grown up with an easy to accept construct fed from family and cable news, telling me rich people are not to be trusted, how evil they are, how elitist they act, I …
Now to shift our attention on this blog. By shifting to exactly that, attention. My previous articles set up the problem we face collectively with attention hijacking technologies, our lack of healthy solitude, our inability to remove distractions from our lives, and more. Building habits to focus our attention will be a massive topic on …
Continue reading “Pay Attention To What You Value, Not What Distracts”
After shouting at the cable news segment you just watched on your favorite network leaning favorably to your side of the political spectrum, you reach for your blood pressure medicine. “If not for the 24/7 demonstration of actions the ‘other’ side is up to, how else will people learn of all the evils of the …
Continue reading “The Product Feature Is Cancerous: 24/7 Outrage For Ratings”
For the fourth installment in this series on solitude (see parts 1, 2 and 3), I dive further into Cal Newport’s chapter on solitude in his book Digital Minimalism, and highlight more of solitude’s benefits. Unfortunately, in this era of constant (not just instant) connection, we are depriving ourselves of an incredibly rich value we …
Have you ever recharged your energy by just being by yourself? And more so in these times of retreat, found yourself appreciating those who are in your life as a result of your day trip alone on the hiking trail or solo shopping trip? Continuing the brief series on the strength found in solitude, I …
Continue reading “Strength In Solitude Part 3: Our Happiness Depends On It”
An entire generation has “eliminated time alone with their thoughts from their lives,” and subsequently, it is this young generation who is experiencing tremendous spikes in anxiety and mental health deterioration. The quoted line above is found on page 108 from the book Digital Minimalism by computer professor Cal Newport. The generation in question is …
Continue reading “Strength In Solitude Part 2: This Anxious Generation”
Not being in a hurried rush means becoming present to people around us. People we weren’t seeing as we went by in a blur with our daily to-do list. Or thrown off mid conversation by our phone notifications. Or an increase in our distractibility overall. What is the place we incorrectly desire to be distracted …
Continue reading “Strength In Solitude Part 1: Into The Wilderness”
Return To Eremos 