In 2008 in the United States alone, over 1 trillion text messages were exchanged. Mathematically speaking, it equates to 3.5 billion messages each day, or 145 million text messages each hour. There are more than 18 million people on Twitter, and according to the most recent stats published by Facebook more than 150 million users access their page through mobile devices! The conclusion that can be drawn from these startling facts is that we are closely attached to the technology that enables social relationships. The invention that was originally intended to liberate us from social isolation now stands as the poster-child for over-stimulation, excessive accessibility, and absolute technological reliance. When it comes to the relationship between technology and healthy living, the equation is pretty simple: technology + boundaries = healthiness.
While the tone here has the potential to be negative, it is important to clearly state that the problem with technology has nothing to do with the technology itself. In fact, it is actually most fair to view technology as value-neutral, which is to say it lacks any inherent goodness or badness. Rather, technology simply is, and it is the use of this technology that determines its value. There are countless technologies that have the potential to enhance our quality of life that are frequently overlooked or typically misunderstood. A great example of this is video conferencing. Educationally speaking, video conferencing has the potential to create interactions between teachers and learners in a manner that creates a diverse and enriched classroom experience in contexts where gathering in the same physical location is simply impossible. By the same token, however, this technology has been utilized to exploit the sexuality and developmental well-being of adolescents across the globe. Our responsibility, then, is to serve as sensible people when it comes to the application of technology in our lives.
So what does all of this mean? In the quest for healthy living, it has long been said that stress is the silent killer. It comes as no surprise the means by which this silent killer is delivered are the devices to which we are most closely attached. Lap-tops. Cell phones. MP3 players. Big screen televisions. Surround sound. Video and computer games. With constant bombardment from high-stimulation technologies, we are terribly at risk for losing touch with the relationships that ground us in reality. As Archibald Hart aptly states in his book, “Thrilled to Death”, “our continuous pursuit of high stimulation is snuffing out our ability to experience genuine pleasure in simple things.” At the core of this concern is our cultural inability to maintain healthy boundaries around our use of technology. This stress is self-inflicted in many ways, in that we have invited these technologies into our lives in an effort to “simplify” or “connect”. The harsh reality is that many of us lose control of the influence of technology and soon fall prey to over-stimulated, isolated and technologically dependent lives, far from the simplicity and connection envisioned at the outset.
How the equation reads in most homes sounds something like this: high technology + low boundaries = unhealthy environment. For most people, the primary solution is the removal of
