Social media itself is not the problem – we just have to learn how to use it more carefully

Anne-Marie Tomchak

We have been using our smartphones and screens more than ever throughout the pandemic. Stock image: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc

February 01 2022 02:30 AM

I have a confession to make: I have looked at my phone about six times before writing down a single word of today’s column. Was the phone ringing? No. Was I getting a text message? No. Was there a reminder on my calendar? No. Was there anything, anything at all, even vaguely important to check? Big fat no.

If you count discovering the crucial breaking news that Sue Gray’s report has been delivered to Downing Street, then yes, I’ve come back a teeny-weeny bit wiser after catching up on my notifications. But overall, the experience of dipping into a smartphone for nothing in particular feeds into a general sense of distraction and a lack of focus.

And yet, we all still do it. If anything, we’ve been using our smartphones and screens more than ever throughout the pandemic as we adapt to working remotely from home and hosting virtual rather than in-person meetings.

It makes me wonder: What is all this screen time doing to our brains and our attention spans? How is it affecting our ability to connect with each other and to really engage with big challenges like climate change, for example?

It’s during times like these that we need someone like Gary Turk to write a follow-up to his spoken word poem Look Up. Anyone remember that? His anthem about the ills of social media went massively viral in 2014 with over 62 million views on YouTube.

It goes something like this: “I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely. I speak to all of them every day, yet none of them really know me… When we open our computers, it’s our doors we shut. All this technology we have, it’s just an illusion. Community, companionship, a sense of inclusion yet, when you step away from this device of delusion, you awaken to see a world of confusion.”

You get the idea.

Turk’s poem is a nostalgic anthem about the things that we’re missing out on because we’re living in a social media bubble of self-interest, self-image and self-promotion.

He posits that we’re preoccupied and glued to our screens. If only we would just look up, we might enjoy that lovely sunset or time with family and friends without having to take a picture of it and validate ourselves by sharing it with the rest of the world.

I interviewed him at the time of his viral success (while posting about it on social media) and remember the vitriolic criticism that the poem received. Even back then, almost 10 years ago, people really didn’t like being told what to do with their phones.

The concept of nuance was foreign to the keyboard warriors who listened to the poem as a binary criticism of technology. If they’d taken the time to read the description to the video they would’ve seen that Turk had clearly stated that he wasn’t asking people to stop using social media or smartphones. His poem is about finding a balance.

Fast forward almost a decade and it feels like the issues raised by this poem feel just as relevant and inconclusive as ever. Headlines rage about how the iPhone is as addictive as cigarettes with consequences that are impossible to reverse.

And yet, there still isn’t enough unanimous agreement in the scientific community about the impact that our phones are having.

Amy Orben, a research fellow at Cambridge University, is among those who are quick to pour cold water on speculation about the harm that smartphones cause to our brains. She says there isn’t enough high-quality evidence and that we need more data.

Orben has been carrying out data analysis to find out how technology affects the mental health of teenagers. In 2019 she co-authored a University of Oxford study that found no link between screen time and psychological well-being.

But the caution coming from parts of the scientific community still doesn’t stop people writing about how distracted we all are and how the attention economy is impacting our chances of grappling with climate change.

In the recently published book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, journalist Johann Hari says social media and other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. In essence, we’re part of a neo-liberalist economic structure that rewards individualism rather than collective action.

Hari goes on a journey of self-discovery, taking part in an intense digital detox in Cape Cod. He gets off the grid and quits social media and comes to the realisation that going offline won’t necessarily solve the problem. It’s not social media per se that’s the issue, it’s the way that the “always on” world is structured. “We need an attention movement to reclaim our brains before it’s too late,” he says.

One interesting section of Hari’s book examines how we are losing up to 20pc of our brain power because we are living in a “perfect storm of cognitive degradation”. Hari speaks to MIT neuroscientist Professor Earl Miller, who explains that our brains can only produce one or two thoughts at once. So when we believe we are multitasking, we are actually juggling. As we pivot between social media, email and other tabs on our devices, we are really switching and having to reconfigure our brains each and every time.

“And that comes with a cost,” says Mr Miller.

Streamlining how we use technology so that we can make the most of our time is a good idea. But is it a bit of a stretch to say that we’re in a state of “attention degradation” without enough supporting scientific evidence? While it still hasn’t reached the mainstream prominence of the Kardashians, climate change is getting more attention than ever before.

There is an active global community on social media. Rather than believe the hype of “downgraded humanity”, I’m going to focus on treating my phone a bit like it’s a bar of chocolate, dopamine-inducing but to be consumed with care.

Anne-Marie Tomchak is a journalist and eco entrepreneur. Follow her on social media @amtomchak