Are Distractions Slowly Killing Us?

My daughter despises being sent to her room because there is nothing to do. We scoff at these comments from our kids, but in reality most of us aren’t much different. We aren’t being sent to our rooms anymore, but ask us to sit in silence and we equally throw a tantrum. Slow or no wifi (GASP) has become a tragedy in our digitally connected lives where we can watch our favorite tv shows in the bathroom and everywhere else we go. But it may be this aversion to silence and stillness that in fact is sucking the life out of us, both metaphorically and literally.

Form Without Substance

Father Richard, a Franciscan friar, explains that because we are a society with so many distractions we can go quite a long time before we deal with the meaningful questions of life. Not wrestling with these questions leads us to lives that have form but no substance. He writes this in his book Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer.

Earlier peoples, who didn’t have as many escapes and means to avoid reality, had to find Essence earlier—just to survive. On the contrary, we can remain on the circumferences of our lives for quite a long time. So long, that it starts feeling like the only “life” available.

Richard Rohr

What is alarming is that Rohr penned these words in 2003, twenty-two years ago. To give you an idea of what 2003 was like, Netflix mailed DVDs to your house, Nokia was the number one phone, and Finding Nemo was the number one movie at the box office. So it’s safe to say that we have at least a few more distractions with us today.

Another Dose Closer to Death

When life and emotions are difficult it’s easy to attach the morphine drip of endless streaming shows, scrolling social media, and anything else to crowd out the silence. As we ignore questions of meaning, they slowly infect our souls like gangrene until we become hollowed out versions of ourselves. The lack of answers for these questions contributes to existential anxiety, depression, and can even lead to suicide. Without a framework for why life matters or why we matter as people, not existing seems a viable and even enticing solution to our despair.

Part of the reason we avoid these questions is partially because they are big, abstract, and even scary. But they also feel like that test question we never covered in class because as a society we don’t have a collective framework to handle these questions.

You are not a robot…

Throughout history there have been two main proponents that have helped us answer this question: religion and philosophy. However, with the the advancement of science and technology we have slowly dehumanized human experience by marginalizing these subjects. It’s not my intent to demonize STEM (although some of it is clearly harmful) but merely to point out that we don’t need to throw out humanity just to advance science and technology. On the flip side, one of the reasons religion and philosophy have lost their influence is because often times the proponents of them can be dogmatic, legalistic, and egotistic. It doesn’t paint a good picture of what life can and should be about either.

But don’t let either of those things stand in your way of answering these questions for yourself. I understand how difficult it can be, and I’ve practiced faith for over a decade now. I wish it was cleaner cut, but it’s messy and difficult. But its also good, worthwhile, and beautiful. Take a step on the journey.