The Guilty Pleasures of Digital Dawdling

It is a bad habit. This constant addiction to the phone, to the next dopamine hit. This mindless compulsion to keep scrolling even when there is nothing one is specifically looking for. Families live in physical proximity and emotional remoteness, each individual lost to their own timelines. Our brains are being rewired, unable to focus for any length of time on any one thing, our reading habit is being replaced by the urge to browse, and to hyperjump into someplace else. Our thinking is becoming shallower, as we struggle to construct thoughts that exceed the 140- character world limit. Socially our connections are becoming more abundantly superficial, and we live in a world of ‘friends’ whose utterances we ‘like’. We are on constant display, and as the algorithm-driven digital world learns to build mirrors around us, we see nothing but a reflection of our needs and our opinions wherever we might go.

This is all true.??Part of the explanation of this compulsive behaviour is straightforward. It’s not our fault. The technology makes us do it. It is designed to give us little hits of reward that we cannot do without. After all, we are deep down, nothing but blobs of chemistry sprinkled with a lot of electrical activity. Our brains have a mind of their own, and it listens to its neurotransmitters more than to whatever we think of as our ‘self’- that thing with free will and agency, expertly distilling good from bad. The bad news is that giving in to the seductive charms of technology not only becomes a habit, but over time, thanks to the plasticity of the brain, our brains change, shortening our attention spans and doing all the nasty things that were spoken of in the opening paragraph.

But is that all that is at work? Are we nothing more than helpless puppets dancing to the tunes of our Metamasters? Do we not behave in the way we do because we get something out of it- something more than the dopamine hit of constant pseudo-activity?

It is important to acknowledge that there is something deeply satisfying about all acts of dawdling. The joy of grazing at different pastures, without ever settling down to a life of domesticity. To be nomadic, to stray, to loiter without purpose, being led only by what catches our fancy- what’s not to like about this? And it’s not that we don’t stumble upon something more substantive occasionally, something that satisfies higher order needs. Why must life always be purposeful and why must our interest be led by what is important and meaningful?

The truth is that we are reading less vertically but are far more exposed horizontally. The access to a wide range of voices is unparalleled, as we benefit not just from what interests us but also from the combined curiosity of those we are connected with on social media. We are trading one form of knowledge for another, and while one can argue about the relative merits of both, the digital world strives to keep us interested. We read out of interest, not compulsion, and explore only that which holds our attention. We do not tolerate bores in the name of wisdom and cut through the self-importance of those who think they know better.?

And it’s not just words. We have images, short videos, gifs, memes, NFTs, games- the world is exploding with new formats. The ability to process new kinds of media and to find pleasure and meaning in newer forms of creative expression has also led to an explosion in the number of creators that we see around us. Indeed, all of us by virtue of participating in the making of the Internet, are active creators of meaning rather than being mere passive consumers. The content that we are surrounded with might be shallower, but our role in it is vastly more significant than it once was.

At a less significant but equally useful level, we now have the means to live for extended periods with our own company. The ability to spend time while being immersed in something we find interesting translates into being able to navigate passages of boredom that otherwise sat heavily in our lives. Acts of waiting have become easier as has the dreary drone of the daily commute. Meetings are so much less burdensome for one can happily be elsewhere while pretending to nod seriously at some corporate drivel being beamed out with spurious earnestness.

There are those who seeks nirvana by foreswearing devices, cleansing themselves of the toxic effects of compulsive digital dawdling. And while they do apparently achieve higher states of consciousness, levitate before lunch and opening up eyes in different parts of the body, for the rest of us, even momentary separation from one’s phone feels like the loss of a primary faculty. We depend upon the device so much because it fulfills something fundamental within, even if that might produce many dysfunctional side effects.

Every change of technology, particularly one that involves media, changes the way we think. The world changed when we moved from the spoken word as the primary means of communication to the written word becoming the primary unit of authority. It changed again with television and the privileging of impulse. It is hardly surprising that the arrival of digital combined as it is with the kind of radical opening of access to not only receiving communication but also of generating it, should transform everything in a fundamental way.?

The change works in both ways. It empowers us in ways we could not have imagined while narrowing our perspective terrifyingly. If there is an answer, it perhaps lies in keeping oneself as open as possible and surrounding oneself with people and views that are as interesting as only the Internet can allow them to be. If that doesn’t work, one can always vent one’s outrage. On social media. Where else??

(This is a version of a piece that has appeared previously in the Times of India)