Finding peace in a noisy world?

There is currently so much rightful concern about the impact that social media is having on children and young people. Many parents sense the impact smart phones, social media and other sources of digital noise are having on the children and young people in their lives but feel helpless to do anything about it given the social pressure on children to go along with the crowd. We automatically sense the need to parent our children’s involvement in something we know is having a negative impact on them – what we are however doing less of is parenting ourselves and managing our own engagement with the digital world.

Anyone that knows me will testify that I have resisted involvement in social media – on occasions I have had a presence, but always reluctantly, and badly! This morning, I set out to continue building my LinkedIn presence. In the process, I found myself spending a significant amount of time on tasks that, while necessary, didn’t feel particularly fulfilling or impactful just yet. Two women that I admire, and respect have told me to persist, but for now I have given up and am about to go pot up some seeds in the garden! I do however realise that that isn’t an option for everyone and that engaging with the digital world seems to be a must now. We have all seen the statistics that show people are accessing their phones for 6 or 7 hours a day or focused on screens for even longer, responding to this constant stream of notifications and alerts leads to opportunities for comparison and becoming fearful that we are somehow missing out. Research is emerging that this is creating increased anxiety, sleep and mood disorders, poor concentration and stress. This hyperconnectivity to the digital world so often leads to a disconnection from what is around us – how often have you sat in a restaurant and seen a table of 4 all doom scrolling rather than engaging with the friends and family they are sitting with?

It's therefore so important to find a way to put boundaries in place around our digital lives both for our own wellbeing but also to allow meaningful thought and creativity and to allow for a more productive individual. The Scottish Philosopher Thomas Carlyle said, "Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves." Working through small steps to begin to disengage is critical now more than ever, be that moving phones out of bedrooms, turning off push notifications or keeping phones some way away from where you are working or eating. So, on that note I am off to pot some seeds and find some joy in the small thing of being outside away from any screens or phones.

Sherry Peck

www.sp-associates.org