Just the other day I watched three young girls sitting together in a coffee shop.  I think they were friends but there was no real way of knowing as they did not interact with one another.  Instead, they were all absorbed in whatever the entertainment their mobile devices were offering: texting, surfing, organising photos, playing with apps.  I don’t know.  But it struck me as sad that throughout their time together, they barely acknowledged each other. Perhaps they were texting each other!  If that wasn’t so nearly possibly true, it would be funny.

The Sydney Herald (yes, in Australia) reported just last month that coffee shop owners have started to reduce the availability of free WiFi in their premises.  This has reportedly had the effect of bringing back the social vibe in cafes and bars – “people interacted more, they started to listen and talk to each other properly and weren’t constantly distracted by a screen”.

I read or heard something recently (though can’t remember where sadly – must have had some brain fog going on) that most of us think we choose to spend our time doing what we enjoy.  And yet when specifically asked what we enjoy doing we almost never answer with the things that fill our off-duty time.

I had first hand experience of this on a mindfulness retreat a couple of years ago.  A group of about twenty people were asked to list their top 20 most treasured experiences relating to each of the five senses – so that is one hundred experiences per person.  Without exception, no-one listed anything to do with the use of technological devices even though there were plenty present at the retreat.  Instead examples included watching the sun go down, hearing the wind in the trees, the taste of dark chocolate, the smell of freshly cut grass, the feel of freshly laundered bed sheets – you get the idea.  What was even more striking was that the leader of our group often worked with groups of young people and he informed us that the results of this exercise were near enough the same with teenagers and young adults.  So why don’t we put our devices down and go outside to do something we enjoy?

It strikes me that making considered choices about how we spend our time has numerous benefits, particularly if we switch our  mobile devices off whilst we are engaged in other activities.  We will reduce the electromagnetic fields in public areas, benefitting our own health and opening up social spaces again for those with electrosensitivity.  We will, arguably, have better quality social interaction.  We will get more pleasure from our experiences just through being more mindful.

Looking for an image to go with this blog I searched “friends sharing coffee”.  Practically every image which resulted from that search featured mobile technology of some kind.  I rest my case.