The Assault of Digital Distraction

Living in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election is akin to being tangled up in a domestic violence situation. No matter how much or how loud you plead for the abuse to stop, it continues. It’s noisy. There is word salad, and chaos, and confusion. One tends to constantly re-examine one’s grasp on reality – checking and re-checking to ensure that what we just heard or what we just read makes sense. Or not. It’s emotional abuse on a grand scale.

I realized how pervasive all this noise was when my son took a vacation on the Cape and I was provided a week alone in his apartment in charge of caring for his two cats. We live in one of Boston’s most diverse and enchanting neighborhoods with more than its fair share of cozy restaurants, coffee houses, pubs, triple-decker townhouses, and a favorite bodega on every block.

I deeply wanted to take advantage of the week, perhaps even imagining myself on a writer’s retreat of sorts. I intended to walk about the neighborhood, shoot some photos, and immerse myself in the different cultural offerings. It was, I imagined, a period of time when I could be inspired, study, and focus without interruption.

But there were interruptions. There were many many interruptions. They came in the form of dozens of emails from the ACLU, Pen America, Washington Post and more. There were also social media outbursts, a constant succession of breaking news, nonsensical presidential tweets, and robocalls. Two days passed before I figured out that I wasn’t really enjoying solitude or experiencing profound inspiration. I was being besieged and like a women in a domestic violence situation, it was imperative that I identify the source of the trouble and cut it out of my life.

Digital chatter does not contribute to our life. It detracts from it. Life is actually the stuff we do in the three dimensional world.

What would happen if, I “unplugged” for the week? I read somewhere that this was suppose to be good for you. But it was a heady decision, riddled perhaps with some issues of addiction, the need for validation, and fear of missing something big. Could I actually do it?

I stowed my mobile in my underwear drawer, turned off all the notifications on my tablet, and decided to check email only once a day. I sent Facebook and Twitter on a vacation.

The first day of my retreat was overcast and rainy. It wasn’t the type of rain that falls heavy to the ground and bounces on pavement, but instead a mist which swirled about in the air covering everything in a half hearted wetness. Regardless, it was perfect writing and reading weather. I parked myself in the living room with a coffee and a new memoir that I was reading. It was oddly silent. The odd part about it was that I knew, or at least hoped, that the silence would last – much like when an abusive partner leaves for work and you are ensured a certain period of respite.

I heard the dripping of the kitchen faucet and the hum of the frig. That was all. My shoulders began to unknot. I had an entire day of peace. That day turned into a week. That first week turned into another. And then another. It was satisfying how much I accomplished and how much more I enjoyed my free time. The quality of life improved.

But, of course, back in the real world, emails have to be answered, and social media needs to be checked and used for marketing, news needs to be read, and it’s always nice to hear from friends. What the difference has become for me is that I’ve become much stricter with its intrusion, I’ve cut off the heads of unwanted distress, and have become more mindful about my time.

Writer/photographer Lisa Mikulski. Available for print or online publications. Editorial, features, content development, and creative.