Pay attention to one another, not a screen

Nineteenth century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

If priorities were easily confused and distractions plentiful in Emerson’s time, how much more are these issues exacerbated now by the ubiquitous nature of smartphones and social media companies like Meta, Google, and TikTok.

Many digital immigrants — those of us who only started using digital technology during our adult lives — seem to think we are immune to these issues, but intentionally distracting products do not discriminate based on age; the death scroll comes for us all.

Tech companies have nearly perfected their ability to monetize our time and have effectively created a new economy — the “attention economy” — which has become the most lucrative business model in history.

These companies, among others, have cornered the market on what we do with our time. If they were to turn Emerson’s quote into a slogan it might sound something like: “This time, like all times, is a very good time, to stare into the bright abyss of a screen.”

In his newest book The Amazing Generation, Jonathan Haidt attempts to educate kids aged eight to 12 on the pitfalls of smartphones, social media, and the prioritization of the online world over the offline world (a.k.a. real life).

At one point he illustrates just how quickly our time is lost to what he calls the “tech wizards” through a simple screen time chart. The long and short of it is that one hour per day on a screen turns into 15 full days over the course of a year. Ten hours per day on a screen turns into five full months over the course of a year.

Is this how we want to spend time, our most valuable resource?

As I thought about how precious our attention is from a faith perspective, I was reminded of something Christian Wiman recently wrote in Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian.

While recognizing this idea may be unorthodox at best and heretical at worst, he postulates: “God doesn’t exist until I turn my attention to him.” He clarifies this thought by adding that it is relationships — both with God and one another — that enables God’s being to be perceived, experienced, and shared.

The poet Mary Oliver summed up the connection between attention and relationships when she wrote that “attention is the beginning of devotion.” This echoes Jesus’s sermon on the mount, where he reminds us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” With our attention now being the most valuable economic commodity, I wonder if today Jesus might have said: “where your attention is, there your heart will be also.”

If we believe there is even a shred of truth in any of these words, it is imperative that we take back our time and attention; both in quantity and quality.

What happens when we no longer have strong real world social networks?

We are relational beings and study after study reveals that although we are now more ‘connected’ than ever, we have also never been more lonely. Our connection to the divine and each other is weakened when we focus the majority of our relational attention toward online influencers, algorithmic feeds, and the latest viral meme rather than on real world friends and family.

How can we build strong and lasting relationships with other human beings when our attention is constantly diverted back to the miniature slot machines we carry in our pockets? Research has determined that even the presence of a smartphone sitting on a table between two people affects our ability to fully commit our attention to the present moment.

I fear for the future. Tech companies continue to develop new and more effective techniques for hijacking our attention.

This is sure to get worse as moderation and fact checking disappear in favour of a multitude of AI tools capable of producing a neverending feed of attention-grabbing slop. At the same time, I remain hopeful that young people will learn from our corporate failure to regulate this industry and our individual failure to push back against what we know is not good for us.

May this “amazing generation” be empowered to live intentionally and take back their time and attention from those who seek to exploit it for profit. Perhaps their example might inspire us all to break free from this grand experiment we’ve been unknowingly thrust into.

Let us stand together against an economy that steals our most valuable resource and by its very nature weakens our ability to give ourselves fully to God and to one another.

Riley Enns is an aspiring Luddite and pastor at Church of the Way in Winnipeg.