Reset Your Relationship With Technology

Technology has made life-changing breakthroughs in only a matter of years in how we connect with, relate to and interact with more people worldwide. This was a part of what led me to pursue a career in it. While the technology itself is neither good nor bad, its applications of it are not neutral. We need to be aware of the dangers of being under the influence of tech, just as we would be wary of other addictive substances or other behavioural addictions, like gambling. Today, we will learn about our lives are digitally represented in numbers and how collectively we’ve fallen under the influence. This can be hard to see when so many others are struggling in silence or shame. The first step is lovingly observing your behaviours, how it makes you feel and their impacts on other relationships in your life. From here we can then explore the limitless possibilities about how to reprogramme your relationship with technology for the better.

The science-fiction stories we once imagined about technology are important to revisit to understand how we developed this into today’s facts. Are we living in what Neil Postman described in his 1992 book ‘Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology’ or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World? Technology has revolutionised our societies, and in many ways in a positive way, but we still need to revisit these stories to see the actors, intentions and power more clearly. Today, we will learn about how entrepreneurs and futurists used their imagination to build the once fictional stories into reality, explore the unintentional (and intentional) consequences as a result of these technologies and become authors of change to re-write our stories where technology serves people, living beings and the planet first.

Not long ago, I used technologies to exist everywhere simultaneously and in parallel. I believed somehow that if I continually mastered and introduced new technologies, I could infinitely do more and get more work done. I was told (or more rightly, sold) to believe that this would help me become a better person, be a better friend, build a better business, and reach my goals faster. None of these was true, but it took me quite some time to realise it. Today, we will uncover your beliefs about technology to know how to set better agreements with it and overcome limiting beliefs.

The human mind is built for distraction. It was how we used to survive, but it hasn’t evolved as rapidly as in our digital age. Our willpower is like the limited use of a phone battery and distractions are far greater and more disruptive to our goals than ever before. Why do we unconsciously cycle through many of these poor habits with technology? There is a reason we may be hiding and to reprogramme your relationship to tech, we need to decrypt these messages to address the underlying issues we’ll need to confront. In this lesson, we will explore why people use technologies to avoid pain, suffering and trauma and why it doesn’t work. I will share my personal journey through abuse of technology, expressed as workaholism and it led me to become more mindful and intentional with my use.

The influence of technology can become so distorted, hidden or difficult to see is because we don’t share the same operational systems. Human beings are meaning-making machines, while machines are building from what we’ve taught them, without a consciousness of their own. We need to work within our human mind to find ways to relate to artificial intelligence differently. In this less, we will run through a powerful anthropomorphism exercise that will bring your tech products to life and see their influence more clearly. In relating to tech differently, we can create better boundaries, identify toxic platforms and find ones, like Insight Timer, that can strengthen our ability to be better humans.

While the tendency to use technology is that we can do more with less, especially in the workplace, we still need to put that hypothesis to the test. Many academic studies have shown that not to be the case. Taking breaks is natural, needed and something that needs to be communicated to your team. Focusing on Dr Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work, we will discuss a future where more specialised, rewarded and meaningful work will be for those who manage their relationship with technology on their terms. Today, we’ll discuss ways to set up a digital environment that can support your boundaries, communicate expectations, manage your workload and make the most of the scare time we have.

Technology doesn’t work in isolation and neither do you. While our workplaces may not be exclusively digital, we have had to all adapt to hybrid ways of working but maintain human connections. This can be difficult to translate from your personal to professional life. However, no matter what position you hold in the workplace, you can lead people through role modelling what you’ve learned, apply these strategies to the workplace and understand as a team how you want to shape the digital spaces around you. We’ll be learning today about how to apply what you have discovered in the previous lessons with your colleagues, teams and digital workspaces to shape them into spaces you can remain human in.

There will be mistakes as you remove your dependencies on technology and create better boundaries around its use. With any revelation in your life, you may feel ‘woke’ and become on a mission to improve others’ lives too. We need to pause in those moments. Change doesn’t happen overnight, nor can technology be entirely eliminated, so we’ll need a lot more love, forgiveness and patience with ourselves and others. The best time to start is today and the way to help others is by helping yourself first. In this lesson, we will introduce a few simple, gradual and intrinsically reinforcing techniques to manage when we fail and support the people we want to change.

It can feel now strange without our screens following us wherever we are. However, if we don’t take concerted breaks from technology, we will pay a toll on our body, mind and spirit. Taking a break from tech, may not be as easy as it used to be. You’ll need to let the people around you know when or how to be reached, you’ll need consistency around how you break and what you’ll do instead of screens. We also need to observe and journal through the process to know we are building in the direction we want. In this lesson, we will cover how to reunite with old and discover new screen-free activities, the disciplined practice of taking a break and how to measure and track your progress.

Human time is not a renewable resource. It is arguably the truest example of a scarce resource on our planet since each human has a limited time and is irreplaceable. It is limited, and thus so are our choices of where and how we spend our time. Our time is not something we can get back, but today is a better day than ever to change. Each one of us possesses that influence, whether we believe it or not. We can’t keep up with everything, but there are many actions we can take to leave a meaningful digital footprint behind. In our final lesson, we will summarise the lessons covered in this course, how to influence your digital interactions, positively lead others and be a part of a positive change in the industry efforts. Where do we go from here? It all starts from where you’re at today. There is always a way if you maintain the will to make it so.