Picture © Daniel Hanna 2013

“Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.” -Adam Hochschild

I attended an IMAX theater for the first time to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I had already seen it in a regular theater one time before, but I wanted to go see it in IMAX.  I went with two people, and one of them was looking at his phone during the movie to the point that he was missing out on the movie.  It was also this person’s first time seeing this movie or any Star Wars film for that matter, so I told him to get off the phone and watch the movie.  The result was that he really enjoyed the movie, and he even called me the following day to talk about the movie and IMAX.

This got me thinking about how easy it is for us to be distracted through phones, texts, apps, and social media.  While distraction has always been a problem for humanity, it is now much easier, in fact, the easiest it has ever been for humans to be distracted.

Distractions affect us in three ways:

1. Distraction lowers quality

If my friend had continued checking his phone throughout the whole movie, he would have missed out on the immersion of IMAX and the story of the film.  After he put away his phone, he enjoyed the movie and recognized its quality as well as the IMAX format.  If he had continued on his phone, he would not have recognized the quality, and possibly would not have understood the story.

2. Distraction causes you to miss life

While in the past it would have been extremely difficult to be distracted during certain events, now it has become extremely easy due to smart phones and instant notifications being available everywhere.  Next time the phone goes off with instant notification, do not check it right away (unless you are expecting an extremely important message).  Begin training yourself not to have to respond to every single instant notification or to check your phone because you may become used to this, and in the future you may miss out on one of the following because you checked a notification:

• The birth of a child
• The first steps or first words of a child
• The moment one of your loved ones walks the stage during graduation
• Seeing a friend’s elaborate proposal
• Hearing a husband and wife exchange their wedding vows
• Being involved when a major twist happens in a book, in a television show, or a movie

Most of these events happen within the course of a few seconds.  Will it have been worth it to check that instant notification and miss out on these moments?  Where will the flavor of life be without these moments?  We should train ourselves now to not immediately go and check notifications in order to be able to be present for these moments in life when they happen.

3. Distraction is dangerous

Recently, there was a story that made the national news about a man who fell off a cliff after monitoring an electronic device.  According to the article, it appears that the man was on a device and tried to take a selfie with the sunset when he fell over 60 feet to his death.  Digital distraction has become very dangerous.  One of the lifeguards quoted in the article said, “Just like driving and using a cell phone, you don’t want to be walking and using a cell phone or be distracted or anything.”  We should take that lifeguard’s advice because we may be walking and not see a ditch in the road, and we can fall badly and break something or trip and fall and so on.  We should be careful not to be distracted through digital devices.

While distraction has always been there, the level and frequency of distraction has increased exponentially following smart phones and devices connected to the internet that notify us instantly when some event happens or someone texts us.

What have you missed by being distracted by your phones?  What else have you noticed resulting from the overuse of digital devices and cell phones?