60-second Questions are mini-voyages in self-discovery. Take just 60 seconds to ponder a question that may offer new insights into yourself, God and the world around us. Good things can happen in just a minute!
Here is today’s question, set up by columnist Ross Douthat in his New York Times op-ed “Resist the Internet”
Compulsions are rarely harmless. The internet is not the opioid crisis; it is not likely to kill you (unless you’re hit by a distracted driver) or leave you ravaged and destitute. But it requires you to focus intensely, furiously, and constantly on the ephemera that fills a tiny little screen, and experience the traditional graces of existence — your spouse and friends and children, the natural world, good food and great art — in a state of perpetual distraction.
Used within reasonable limits, of course, these devices also offer us new graces. But we are not using them within reasonable limits. They are the masters; we are not. They are built to addict us, as the social psychologist Adam Alter’s new book “Irresistible” points out — and to madden us, distract us, arouse us and deceive us. We primp and perform for them as for a lover; we surrender our privacy to their demands; we wait on tenterhooks for every “like.” The smartphone is in the saddle, and it rides mankind.
Your 60-second question: are you addicted to the internet?
- Are you using the internet within “reasonable limits?” How do you define reasonable limits?
- What are some signs that you may losing control to the need to constantly be checking social media?
- Think of just today: what is the longest amount of time you can remember between checking screens?
