Technology & Depression

It’s called ‘The Web’ because once your in it, your stuck. Terry Hall

Technology should improve your life…Not become your life. Billy Cox

I am in shock sometimes by how addicted I am to my cell phone. It’s almost like it has become another limb on my body that I can’t function without. Some days it seems like I don’t go more than 15 minutes without checking my phone to see if I have new emails, texts, or news feeds. I hate to admit that I check my phone sometimes during dinner dates with my husband, and as I do so, any hope we had for a romantic dinner goes out the window. You’ve probably been there too. You are at a nice restaurant with a significant other, and all of a sudden you realize you are both engaging in a courtship with your respective cell phones, instead of in a relationship with one another.

After a long day of work, the best medicine in the world is spending time with our significant others, family or friends, but instead of finding real meaningful connections with another, we find superficial ones with our phones. Most of us are addicted to this immediate gratification. But the truth is, we are now a nation that is more depressed than ever, and so it seems the immediate gratification we experience with our phones, televisions, and computers is really not so gratifying.

In the article, What might explain the unhappiness epidemic?, Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology, shares compelling research data that was collected from 1 million U.S. teens. Twenge and her colleagues evaluated how teens spent their free time, to determine the specific activities they did in their free time that led to greater levels of happiness or unhappiness. Twenge concluded that activities that did not involve a computer, cell phone, computer or screen of some kind produced more happiness, and that every activity with a screen was connected to less happiness. She shared, “Teens who spent more than five hours a day online were twice as likely to be unhappy as those who spent less than an hour a day.” Twenge also cited a previous study she did that found that adults over the age of 30 were happier 15 years ago than they are now, and she suspects our addiction to our screens is part of this downward trend in happiness. In other words there is a strong correlation between our screen usage and the level of happiness in adults and teens.

For those of us who are old enough, do you remember what life was like without a cell phone or even computer? Were you happier during those days? I know whenever I go to a worship service at church or a yoga class, it is very liberating to spend 60-90 minutes without a cell phone. There is something about disconnecting from screens that is very healing, because it allows for real intimacy with God, ourselves or one another, as opposed to a fabricated intimacy with a screen.

We need to find ways to disconnect from our screens and reconnect to life and one another. What is your relationship like with your phone, television, and computer? How can you set some boundaries with your screens? What would it be like for you to:

Create a “Screen Ban” where screens are not allowed in your home for 2 hours per night
Give Up Television for a week
Refuse to use your cell phone at the dinner table
Only use facebook twice a week
Disconnect from all technology 1 hour before bedtime

Maybe your screen addiction is not as profound as mine is, but if we are honest, most of us over-use technology and this is affecting our mental health and level of personal happiness. How can we dial back on our screen use and instead of plugging into our devices, start plugging into one another? If you are experiencing a season of depression, please consider how often you are connected to the screens in your life. As we spend less times with our screens and more time engaging in treasured hobbies and with loved ones, I bet we will notice a sizeable difference in our mood.

I’m turning off my computer right now,

Christy

Reference:

http://theconversation.com/what-might-explain-the-unhappiness-epidemic-90212