As I approach mid-life (well, I suppose I might already be there
statistically speaking, but I’d rather not think about that right now), I am
more and more aware of how precious our short time here on this rock really
is. I want to be intentional with my
life. Yet, I am so easily distracted from it.
Let me say that again—I am
distracted from my life! How absurd, but I am. I am distracted by the latest sporting event,
the latest “breaking” news story, by the text I just received, by all that
stuff that Upworthy thinks I should hear about, by the podcasts that I have to
keep up with, by so many things. And
some of these distractions are good. I
mean they actually are things that I want to know about. I want to be an informed citizen, I am
interested in what is happening in the world of sports, and I definitely want
to keep up with friends, but it seems like the recent “advances” of technology have
drastically changed the way that I encounter these bits of information and I
don’t know that it is working for me.
As a stay-at-home dad, I
almost always have the opportunity (or temptation) to turn away from a
household chore or playing with my three-year-old daughter to pick up a device
and engage the outside world instead. And even more than that, my phone
can alert me to someone, or something, that wants my attention—right now! A text from a friend, no matter how trivial
has an urgency far beyond it’s content.
The fact that I can check email from anywhere, makes me feel as though I
have a responsibility to do so, notifications of world events from CNN (since
shut off) seem to have a greater pull than their “this-just-in” predecessors on
television. Maybe it’s just a matter of
getting used to these things, but I’m not so sure that is the case.
An example: A couple of nights ago Ohio State played Oregon
in the national championship football game.
Now, I like football, but I don’t follow college all that closely and
have no connection to either school. We choose
not to have cable so I couldn’t watch the game at home, but I had checked the
score on my phone mid-evening and found myself checking back frequently since
it was a close game. I was essentially
“watching” it via sporadic, written play-by-play and stat checks (which, in
case you’ve never tried it, is no way to watch a football game). But after deciding to turn in for the night
(and I really wanted to get to bed because of my new year’s resolution to get
up earlier in the morning), I couldn’t shake the temptation to get up and grab
my phone or ipad and check the score. Why? I didn’t really care. I know that I’ve turned off equally
significant (or insignificant) games on television in the past and easily
slipped into sleep, but for some reason the fact that I knew I could quickly
and easily check the score made the temptation that much stronger. Something about that mode of “watching” made
it harder to turn away from. I had the
will power not to give in, but as I lay there (annoyed that I wasn’t just
falling asleep already!), I realized that my mind—my consciousness—was not where I wanted it to be or where it
naturally would have been had I not checked that score two hours earlier. There are numerous things I’d rather have
been thinking about as I drifted off to sleep that night—reflections on the day
just over, dreams of the future, prayers for my children and family, even simple
plans for navigating the tasks of the week ahead. But instead of using that valuable end-of-day
time on and my life, I was distracted…
Now, maybe this isn’t a big deal. Maybe everyone else is already acclimated to
this way of engaging one another and the world outside and this isn’t a problem
for them. But when I find myself responding to any text
the moment it comes in, or I see the mom at the library completely missing the
fact that her son or daughter just walked into the next section because she’s
glued to her phone, I can’t help but wonder if these ways of connecting with
the world are helping us or if all they really do is offer a constant temptation
to dis-connect from what is before us—our actual life—only to take up the latest
breaking, extremely urgent, needs-to-be-addressed-now… distraction.
