Reclaim Your Autonomy In The Attention Economy: Strategies to Live with Addictive Technology

There's a phrase I've seen popping up online, which sounds like something your grandparent might say while shaking their head and opining on the ills of society these days: "It's the damn phones." It makes me smile, because while it's obviously a gross simplification and not the cause of all issues in the world, something about it feels so true on a personal level. It is this damn phone in my pocket (and too often in my hand) that's at the root of so many of my individual, day-to-day struggles. Like so many others I know what is good for me, but this damn phone is so enticing, it often gets in the way of pursuing the things I truly value and want to be spending my time on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating throwing all of our smartphones into the sea to solve this problem (although, don't you wish you could sometimes?). I'm just saying it should come to nobody's surprise today that smartphones, and the constant access to the internet they provide, are a huge obstacle for many people trying to live their best life. That's almost a cliché at this point.

Understand what you're up against

We are currently living in an Attention Economy. If you are unfamiliar with this term, do a little reading on it, it's interesting. In a nutshell, the Attention Economy is a system in which your attention is the sought-out commodity. Entities like social media companies, advertisers, and content creators compete for your limited attention in order to extract monetary value from it through various ways. For example, the more time you spend scrolling on social media, the more advertising revenue the social media company gets. It's in the company's interest to maximize your engagement through any means possible. Social media companies use tactics like bottomless scrolling to remove natural cues for your brain to take a break, and notifications to tap into your brain's reward system. It's not a fair fight. Multi-billion dollar corporations employ thousands of workers to design these products, and meanwhile we who use them are stuck with brains that haven't had a major hardware update in about a hundred thousand years. So if you feel addicted or have been struggling to limit your tech use, I promise you you're not alone, and it's because these things are working exactly as they were designed. 

Reflect: What needs to change, and why

So let's say you have a gut feeling that you should limit your tech use. Before jumping to solutions, ask yourself: 

• Why am I doing this? 

• What do I value in life (e.g. relationships, career, safety, freedom, fun, skill, etc.)? 

• Is my tech use helping me move closer or further away from those values? 

  
  

Get curious about these questions first, maybe even write down those values and reflect on them. Come back to these for motivation when things get dicey. 

Maybe an app on your phone helps you make new connections you otherwise couldn't. Great, that aligns with our values. Maybe we don't need to cut it entirely out of our lives. Maybe another app on your phone frequently distracts you while you're trying to practice a skill. Uh oh, that doesn't bring us closer to our values. Maybe that needs to change. Rinse and repeat until you have a list of specific changes and reasons to back them up. 

Lastly, it's important not just to look at what we're doing, but also to ask why we're doing it. Often phones can offer a "fast-food" version of very real human needs (e.g. connection, entertainment, expression, novelty, rest, a sense of safety and control). For each tech-related behavior you find problematic, ask yourself: 

• What is this doing for me? What need am I trying to satisfy? 

• How can I meet this need in a more sustainable way? 

  
  

You may be frustrated with the answer to this last question, because just like with food, the healthy alternatives often take more time to prepare, and they don't always taste as enticing the first time. But it's worth it in the long term. 

Fight back: Reclaim your attention

You've done some reflection, and you know what you want to change and why. Now it's time to take action. Here are a few well-tested tactics to help reclaim your independence from addictive technology. There's no one-size-fits-all strategy. Try some of these and see what works for you. 

• Introduce friction, make your phone harder to use.

  • Put your phone in the other room at night and when you need to focus. 

  • Use an app blocker / timer (my favorite is ScreenZen). 

• Practice intentionality. Practice pausing before using your phone to ask yourself:

  • "What's my intention here?" 

  • "Was I planning to do something, or am I checking out of habit?" 

  • "Is this something I need to be doing now?" 

• Find replacement activities. 

  • Need to zone out (or zone in)? Treat yourself to a nap instead of scrolling for an hour. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Read a book. 

  • Itching for entertainment? Play your favorite song and sing/dance along. 

  • Craving connection? Text, call, or leave a voice note for a friend. Talk to a neighbor. Give a compliment. 

  • Feeling anxious about the world? Take breaks from doomscrolling. Take some deep breaths. Ask yourself: "Can I take action in some small way to make the world a better place?" 

    
    

• Find a community. Whether it's a trusted friend or a group like ITAA, having community can help you stay motivated and accountable. 

• Discuss your tech use with a counselor. The therapeutic relationship is a safe space for you to go deeper into the questions posed in this blog post. Your counselor can help you use these insights to craft an individualized plan for reclaiming autonomy over your attention in a world filled with addictive technology.