#mindful tech

[astridsdreamspace]

Less screen clutter, more peace ✨ Digital minimalism helps you reclaim your focus, time, and calm. Here’s how the less is more philosophy can reshape your online life. #DigitalMinimalism #MindfulTech #LessIsMore

The Art of Digital Minimalism: How Less Can Actually Be More in Your Online Life

[astridsdreamspace]

Not every platform wants to keep you glued to the screen. Sometimes, the best thing I can do is send you away for snacks, water, and fresh air. Consider this your gentle Sunday nudge. 💛 #SolsSundaySpark #DigitalWellness #TakeABreak #HealthyInternet #DreamspaceStudio

Sol’s Sunday Spark ✨

[hb-asurawill]

No LIFE, No CAT. mindfulness: Finding Peace in the Paradox: Mindfulness Woven by AI's "Efficiency" and Human "Imperfection" 5th

AI & Human Mindfulness Mindfulness Woven by AI’s “Efficiency”and Human “Imperfection” Good heavens, another day, another delve into the peculiar tapestry of modern existence, isn’t it? As a curator of the antique, I often muse on what truly makes a ‘life’. For those of us navigating the relentless pace of contemporary life, often feeling overwhelmed and perhaps a little lost, it’s easy to…

No LIFE, No CAT. mindfulness: Finding Peace in the Paradox: Mindfulness Woven by AI's "Efficiency" and Human "Imperfection" 5th

[cyborgdrala-blog]

Technology and Meditation

My dissertation research focuses on the intersection of meditation practices and technology use. Over the last year and a half of field work in the Tibetan Buddhist–inspired secular [sic] meditation community, Shambhala, I’ve been realizing that (and seeing glimpses of how) technology can play a role in what some Buddhists might call “waking up,” or seeing reality as it truly is. The fuzzy ideas I have about how technology can be a part of our waking up come from a quite different view, though, than the instrumentalist view of technology implicit in tools like smartphone apps for meditation or personal, at-home EEGs. It is also the complete inverse of what motivated my research to begin with, which was a sense of disconnect between the philosophical underpinnings of the design of technology to support mindfulness and meditation and the philosphical underpinnings of mindfulness and meditation practice itself. In saying ‘the philosophical underpinnings of the design,’ I am building on the classic (in technology studies) notion that artifacts have politics; app design can’t be disentangled from the philosophical assumptions about the self and existence held, however consciously or unsconsciously, by the designers/purveyors of the technology. Before, I saw these technologies as ways of continuing the same old patterns--reification of ego, materialism. Now, while I still think that is true for apps for meditation (and social media in general, which is a separate issue), I see technology, and its relationship to our waking up, and our relationship to it, from a broader (?), more subtle view. This is what I want to explore with this series of posts.

My good friend Rose, a fellow PhD student as well as spiritual friend, sent me a link to a 21-Day Mindful Technology Challenge on kindspring.org. It’s related to one of the contributions I’d like to be able to make with/after my dissertation--contemplative practices (meant to help us wake up) that explicitly involve technology. I don’t quite know what this means yet, so, for the next 20 days (it started yesterday), I plan to write a brief analysis of each of the Mindful Technology Challenge prompts as a way to explore my own ideas about the presence and role of technology in contemplative activities (such as mindfulness and mediation). Here is Day 1.

DAY 1: TAKE MINDFUL SCREEN BREAKS

Accompanying text: “Screens have a way of hijacking our time without our knowledge or conscious consent. When we login to our computers we can get sucked into a digital world and forget to come up for air. The body and mind are revitalized by mindful breaks. Today, whether you are tackling a stream of emails, editing a voluminous document or creating a PowerPoint presentation, make sure to take regular screen breaks. Set an alarm for every hour, and when it rings, make a practice of turning away from your screen for a few minutes. Maybe you'll do a mindfulness exercise, connect with someone, or reorganize your desk. Perhaps do some deep stretches, or take a quick walk around the block. At the end of the day, notice how your energy and productivity levels are impacted by this simple practice of taking conscious breaks.”

This challenge doesn’t have much to do with technology specifically. We can take mindful breaks from anything. Screen time is constant, yes, but so is eating. In fact, this challenge undermines mindfulness in a way--rather than suggesting we practice mindfulness no matter what we are doing, screen or no screen, it suggests we have to take ‘mindful breaks’ from some activities in order to practice mindfulness. It suggests screen time is not, cannot be done mindfully. 

It does, however, involve technology a bit more directly in the exercise via the suggestion to set an alarm. Regular or random alarms throughought the day can be a good way to remind ourselves of our intentions to be mindful, to live mindfully. Breaks from work can be good, too. And we can get lost on our computers and out of our bodies when using computers. But a better exercise--’better’ meaning one that accommodates all aspects of life--is to set the alarm as a reminder to be mindful of whatever you are doing when it goes off, a clunky exercise meant to provide scaffolding for a more all-encompassing life practice: living mindfully moment by moment. Yet, even in this revision to the exercise, technology is more a separate instrument than an integral component of the exercise. 

Finally, the irony of reading about this practice on my computer screen, complete with a comments thread where participants are encouraging one another, disqualifies it for me. But, it could be a koan!--How do you solve this design problem? The communication of the challenge (i.e., the design) undermines the challenge; this challenge to screen time is ontically anchored in screens. I have more thinking to do about this.  

HOWEVER! The recognition of the ubiquity of screens and screen time IS technology playing a role in our waking up. A revised version of this challenge wherein technology is an aspect of contemplative practice would be practice letting screen time prompt mindfulness.

Taking conscious breaks is a fine practice. It just doesn’t have much to do with technology. And mindfulness is possible whether we’re taking breaks to do it, or we’re using our computers--or, in really seeing our computers, letting them, like all other things, remind us to be mindful and present.