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(and the Simple Tricks to STOP IT)

Why People Check Their Tech at the

Wrong Times

“We expect more from technology

and less fromeach other.”

- Sherry TurkleDirector of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self vs

Chances are you’ve

experienced the following:

You’re with a small group of friends at a nice restaurant.

Everyone is enjoying the food and conversation.

Then someone decides to take out her phone…

Not for an urgent call…

Not for an urgent call… but to check email, Twitter, and Facebook.

The Disease that is

Indiscriminate

Gadget Use

Doing nothing in the face of indiscriminate

gadget use is no longer O.K.

Staying silent about bad technology habits

is making things worse

for all of us.

Paul Graham coined the term

“Social Antibodies”:

defenses against new harmful behaviors

He uses the example of cigarette

smoking.

Smoking in public became taboo over the span of just one generation

after social conventions changed.

The remedy to screen indiscretion may be developing new norms that make it

socially undesirable

to check one’s phone in the company of others.

Keep in mind:

Tech makers design these products using the same psychology that makes slot machines

addictive.

If we don’t build social antibodies, the disease of distraction will become

the new normal.

But how do we develop and spread social antibodies to inoculate ourselves against

bad mobile manners?

At Work: Mandate a

“no-screen meeting”

At corporate meetings, someone (typically the highest-paid person in the room) starts

using his or her personal technology.

This sends a message to everyone in the room that gadget time is

more important

than their time.

This also prevents the person using the device from participating in the discussion, which means the meeting

wasn’t worth having

in the first place.

Workshops and discussions

declared device-free are by far more productive.

Setting

expectations

up front

is equivalent to administering a distraction vaccine.

Among Friends: Snap the offender out

of the phone zone

Give your friend two options:

excuse himself to attend to whatever crisis is

happening

Give your friend two options:

excuse himself to attend to whatever crisis is

happening

Give your friend two options:

put away the tech and go back to the

conversation or

How?

Ask a question:

Pull him back to the conversation while sending a clear message.

Then say,

“Oh, sorry, were you on your phone? Is everything

O.K.?”

More often than not, your friend will tuck his phone back into his pocket and start enjoying the company.

Let’s Do

Something

Set limits.

Don’t resign

yourself to

being ignored.

The idea is not to disavow technology

completely, but to encourage people

to appreciate its power, and to

be aware when its power over them

is becoming a problem.

Technology should serve us

— we should

not serve it.

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