Who will you become when you put down your phone and pick up your life?
Psychotherapist and meditation teacher Shannon Algeo takes the stage to discuss “The Power in Your Hands: Liberate Yourself from Attachment to Technology,” which considers our relationships with our phones, which would sooner have us scroll into oblivion than connect with our souls. He’ll be joined in conversation by yoga teacher Seane Corn, the author of “Revolution of the Soul.”
The average smartphone user spends the equivalent of 61 to 80 days per year on their device. Smartphones have become the fifth limb of the human body as they move with us from the bathroom to the waiting room to the kitchen sink to the bed. But we aren’t just physically attached to our phones; we’re emotionally attached as well.
New research reveals how individuals with insecure attachment styles (anxious or avoidant) are more likely to develop a problematic or compulsive relationship with their smartphone. But all of us–regardless of our attachment style–are turning to our phones more and more to soothe and distract us, which numbs our empathy, diminishes the quality of our relationships, and drains the part of our brain required for creative focus. The more time we spend on our screens, the less time we spend engaging in our lives with our own two hands. The good news is that we can course-correct by reclaiming the embodied and ensouled wisdom that our recent ancestors knew well. But digital detoxes are not enough. We need both personal and collective action to recover from the tsunami of digital distraction we now face.