Auditing our digital habits

Why adults should be concerned with their technology/social media usage

By now, most of you have very likely heard of the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. In this book, Haidt makes the compelling argument that social media has severely impacted the mental health of Gen Z since they are the first generation to grow up with smart phones and social media. Gen Z tends to be overprotected in the real world, but given free rein online. As I read The Anxious Generation, I kept wondering where adults fit into this picture of the negative effects of social media. It makes logical sense that we should be concerned with children/teens having access to phones and social media as they are in pivotal developmental states. But do we as adults ever audit our own social media/phone usage and consider how technology is changing and shaping us?

As a note: In this Substack, I utilize the words technology and social media somewhat interchangeably because while I tend to struggle more with social media usage others may struggle with the pull of technology in general (eg, internet, tv, phone, etc). The principles I lay out apply to really any area of technology where it is difficult to rein in personal usage.

From an early age, I loved technology (“always and forever”, for any of you Napoleon Dynamite fans). During preschool, I continuously got into trouble because I finished my work quickly and was bored and distracting to other kids. My pediatrician recommended that I start playing computer games as a way to train my mind and let me work at my own pace. At age 10, I was obsessed with MacBooks and saved up enough money from my bread business to buy one. Very quickly, I understood the ins and outs of the software. Not long after this, I opened a Facebook account to keep up with family who lived overseas and continued to be an early adopter of social media over the years. While these examples demonstrate I was quick to understand technology, I was not great at modulating my own usage of it.

As a kid and teenager, I was often grounded from technology as that was the one thing I prized. After being annoyed at my parents for understanding what I valued and smartly taking it away from me, I would be thankful for the break as I realized the immense mental clarity I gained just from getting off of my computer and/or phone. While I understood the benefit and value of taking time away from technology as a teenager, once I was 18, the world of technology was open to me and no one could force me to take a break. My propensity to being distracted by my phone and technology did not go away when I became an adult, in some cases, this distractive pull became stronger.

Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

Amongst adults, a common refrain I hear is that they want to spend less time on their phone and computer and more time doing the things they love or spending time with people. Yet, they continue to struggle with the addictive pull of the digital world. While it is good that there now seems to be an increased focus on the downsides of technology and social media for young people, I think adults can benefit just as much from doing a technology audit of their own lives.

As an adult, I have found it is very easy to justify the way we spend our time online to ourselves and to others who ask us about our social media/technology usage. Ogling at someone’s most recent trip pictures on FaceBook is toted as ‘catching up with so and so.’ Diving deep into the latest news story and reading commentaries about it is spun as ‘keeping up to date with politics.’ Mindlessly scrolling on Instagram reels is justified by ‘it’s a bad day and I need to feel better.’ Researching a new product to understand the pros/cons of it versus another product is justified by ‘I want to choose the best thing and not waste my money’. Because of this, I think it can be difficult for an adult to realize they have a problem with technology and/or social media.

Since beginning this Substack in April, I have taken Saturdays off of social media in an effort to make time to write more. I discussed more in this post about the benefits I have gained thus far from this practice, but I continue to be amazed at how transformative this social media sabbath has been. I am much more productive when I am intentionally off of social media. During the week, I do not spend that much time on social media as I have a 15-20 minute daily app timer for Instagram and spend maybe 15 minutes total on Facebook during the week. However, keeping to the commitment to being off of social media on Saturdays makes me much less likely to use my phone in general because Instagram serves as a gateway app for me. Once I check Instagram and have my phone in hand, I check out other sites because I am bored and want to just sit and scroll.

Besides being more productive overall, I feel more free. On Saturdays, it is like a weight is lifted off my back to check in, keep up, and stay relevant. The most recent version of Plough Quarterly focused on technology and in an article titled ‘Machine Apocalypse’ by Peter Berkman, he says: “Left unwatched, the reigning technological paradigm will inevitably provide our customs and habits for us.” Personally, I have found this to be true. If I do not intentionally try to break my habit of wanting to be on social media, then I let the technological paradigm dictate my habits. On Instagram every single picture or video I look at as well as how long I look at it is chronicled, so that the algorithm can continue feeding me more of what I am interested in. Of course it makes sense that I am drawn again and again to returning to the app! This often means that I am not challenged in my views on certain topics and can very easily enter into an echo chamber as was chronicled so well in the 2020 movie, The Social Dilemma. Social media is not a passive thing that we can rule, it is often used against us in an effort to take our attention and sell it to the highest bidder.

It does seem like the tides are slowly turning in our wider culture regarding social media. Recently, the Surgeon General called for a warning label on social media due to the mental health crisis in young adults that Haidt highlighted in The Anxious Generation. However, the negatives of social media are still largely focused on children and teenagers and it is assumed that adults are being wise about their own technology usage.

As Tony Reinke says so well in his book God, Technology, and the Christian Life: “…society often embraces new innovations while wearing ethical blinders, galloping straight ahead without asking what path the technology may be on in the first place. Technologists whip the inventions to go faster, but Christians stop to examine the risks. We critique tech because tech does not self-critique.” The temptation of technology is to be a passive consumer, but in order to know how it is shaping and forming us, we need to ask ourselves the hard questions. As a Christian, I ask myself if I am putting technology higher than God in my life, if I am trying to make my own name great through what I post/share, and if I am blindly following technology for the sake of progress instead of being thoughtful about my consumption. These kind of questions have helped me audit my digital life.

I still struggle with my phone and wanting to be on it passively. I also desire to stay up to date with social media and be relevant. These past few months have felt like the beginning of a journey for me regarding my reliance on my phone and addiction to social media and I expect more musings will be shared on this topic. I still love technology and see immense value in it, but I want to ask hard questions and ensure that it is serving me and that I am not serving it.

If you have done an audit of your digital habits, I would love to hear how you did so and what you found!