Jon Mitchell - In Real Life: Searching for Connection in High-Tech Times

To all my teachers

CONTENTS

This is a book about the present moment and what we can do right now to improve our relationship with technology. This isnt a pro-technology or anti-technology book. Being pro- or anti-technology is like being pro- or anti-air. It doesnt matter how we feel about technology; its there, and it will always be there. Maybe the notions of pro-technology and anti-technology exist because we dont have a clear understanding of what technology is.

Technology, as defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a machine, piece of equipment, or method that is created using science and engineering. Mainstream tech media, where I worked as a journalist, describes technology as an environmental and economic force that drives human progress and standards of living. Regardless of your opinion about it or how you define it, chances are youre using technology in some way every day, so it might be beneficial to have an intentional relationship with it and know more about what youre doing.

As a technology writer, Ive been carefully observing one of the fastest, broadest revolutions in human history: the advent of mobile, networked computing. I think out loud about it and try to help others understand it as Ive tried to understand it myself. But my exploration of technology has always had a spiritual motivation. Technology provides humankind with a how, but spirituality provides a why, which I believe must come first. After exploring different approaches to creating a more intentional relationship with the new tools we use, I offer this simple manifesto: Lets keep our technology in tune with the human heart so that it amplifies the best things in our nature.

The purpose of technology is to do work for us. In the most basic, physical sense, any force acting on any body is doing work. The reason we invent any technology is to increase our impact on the world. In that sense, work is the underlying subject of every tech story.

In the economies of human societies, work is usually discussed on an abstract level. We also use the word work to describe the activities people do for monetary compensation. The market places a value on various forms of labor, denominated in money, and people try to find a job doing one of these kinds of work, so they can make money and survive. In high-tech societies, technology stories are largely concerned with work in this sense, showing how new inventions and innovations can make people and companies be more productive, efficient, and profitable. This isnt that kind of story. Rather, Im concerned with work of the highest human order. How can technology enable us, as individuals and communities, to do the work of being a good person? This is the kind of work we can be doing all the time, whether in our jobs, with our friends and families, with strangers on the street, in the airport, on the highway, at the hospital, anywhere. Its the work of being present to the needs and wants of other peopleand ourselves, tooso we can help each other thrive and be happy.

The meaning of words is shaped by our upbringing, our religious and cultural traditions, and our social environments. Religions and moral philosophies are defined and distinguished from one another by the different values and practices they prescribe for a good life. But we have to translate across these lines in order to live together as neighbors. In a diverse and deeply interconnected society, there are best practices we can share to help us do our spiritual work, however we define it for ourselves.

We have created technology to help us do our work, but it cant help us if we dont know what our true work is. The computer will do anything within its abilities, but it will do nothing unless commanded to do so, the designer and computer scientist John Maeda said. What will we command the computer to do? This turns out to be a profoundly ethical question.

The task before us is to identify the qualities of good spiritual work for ourselves, as well as to isolate what is negative or unwholesomethe spiritually harmful kinds of work in which we may engage as we tread our path through the world. To know what our work is requires an ongoing evaluation and, I would argue, mindfulness meditation. A stereotype of meditation is that it involves sitting and staring into space, thinking of nothing. I define mindfulness meditation as an ongoing project of discovering greater awareness of our true nature and the nature of the moment that were in. We then can use these insights to help us define our purpose and, from that purpose, our work.

Of course the moment were facing changes all the time, and so does the technology around us. Mindfulness needs to be a daily practice so that we get in the habit of discerningin the constant stream of new technology and distractions coming at uswhat is helpful and what is not.

This can be an uphill battle. The technologies we use day to day are sometimes not designed to help us do good work. Indeed, some of them are designed to distract us. While those distractions are formidable, the language of technology is always reasonable and transparent enough for us to understand. Once we understand why some technologies are designed for distraction, we will be empowered to create better, more helpful tools.

Even technologies that are designed to distract and entertain can be used for higher purposes. The kinds of distractions provided by the Internet often also have the function of connecting us with other people. That connection can be used to accomplish a higher purpose, as any human connection can. It just takes conscious intention and presence of mind. A spiritual relationship with technology is one in which we, the users, can apply technological powers for their most beneficial purposes. The work of building supportive community, deepening our connection to the world around us, and doing good in the world can be amplified to amazing scale with the power of modern technology.

There are risks, of course, and pitfalls along the way. A mindfulness practice, which I define as regular and intentional time set aside to strengthen our awareness, is a necessary foundation for building a healthy relationship with technology. If we are subject to its tempting distractions, well lose time we could spend on more beneficial work. If we act in the world without introspection, technology will only amplify our recklessness.

Weve created technologies to help us, and if our life is to have meaning and value for us then the tools we use need to have meaning as well. If we want to use technology for good, then we have to give it the right jobs to do.

<<<< WORK AND PURPOSE >>>>

One of the more embarrassing and self-indulgent challenges of our time is the task of remembering how to concentrate, Alain de Botton writes in his brief, beautiful essay On Distraction. He observes that high technology has brought along an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. To sit still and think, without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine, has become almost impossible.too of the relationship between computers and people.

Maybe its uncomfortable to think about a computer in this way. Its an inanimate object. It has a power button; you can turn it on and off. Perhaps you could say it has a kind of intelligencebut its not human, its not an animalso how can it have a relationship with a person?

It may sound too intimate. But we are intimate with computers. We communicate with them through touch. Sometimes we talk to them. Sometimes we gaze at them. Computers are there for us during intimate moments. They facilitate our human relationships. They teach us wonderful things about our world. They can monitor and protect our health. They can help us with our hardest work.