For a growing number of people, the constant pull of smartphones and social media doesn’t just impact their daily lives — it begins to fundamentally change who they are. This shift is especially evident in therapy sessions, where patients express feelings of grief and disconnection. While technology has integrated seamlessly into our world, the pervasiveness has obscured how it subtly alters our emotional landscapes.
Psychoanalyst and scholar Dr. [Author’s name], drawing on their experience across psychology, religion, and tech journalism, observes a recurring pattern: people increasingly recognize that technology, in its relentless demand for attention, pulls them away from what truly matters. Whether it’s neglecting creative pursuits, hindering emotional growth, or disrupting meaningful relationships, the consequences are often felt as an underlying sadness.
Think about dinner with family where eyes drift towards a phone rather than connecting with loved ones. That familiar feeling of unease – the “Damn it, why do I do that?” – stems not only from anger but also from hurt. These seemingly small moments of disengagement accumulate into a residue of grief: countless unnoticed turns away from genuine connection.
The problem, Dr. [Author’s name] argues, is technology’s ability to foster “alexithymia” – a state where it becomes difficult to identify and express emotions. While not universal, this emotional fog occurs with remarkable consistency across users. When feelings do emerge, they are often met with swift action rather than contemplative dwelling. The knee-jerk reaction isn’t exploration but immediate “fixing”: tossing the phone, deleting apps, attempting digital detoxes. These actions rarely lead to lasting change; we return to our devices, caught in a cyclical oscillation between immersion and rejection.
This constant push towards “doing” over “feeling” reinforces the instrumentalization of emotions – making them valid only if they translate into tangible goals. Consider fitness trackers: numbers take precedence over the subjective experience of well-being. On social media, carefully curated profiles become more real than authentic selves.
Even AI tools like ChatGPT shift the focus from creative exploration to achieving specific outcomes through prompt engineering. We’re incentivized to quantify and act upon our emotions rather than simply exist within them. This constant striving for external validation can leave little room for genuine emotional understanding.
Dr. [Author’s name] cautions against conflating this with mindfulness practices, which often fall prey to the same performance-driven mentality. Mindfulness apps that offer gamified rewards further illustrate how quantifiable “results” can obscure genuine introspection.
To reclaim our humanity amidst technological advancement, we must prioritize emotional awareness for its own sake. This requires consciously embracing and dwelling with feelings without immediately translating them into action or change. This shift in perspective – learning to “see it feelingly,” as Gloucester aptly put it – is crucial for cultivating empathy, compassion, and the space to create art and music rooted in authentic experience.
Despite the pervasive allure of distraction, there are glimmers of hope. The growing awareness of social media’s detrimental effects on mental health, especially among young people, suggests that a critical mass recognizes the fatigue it induces.
The rise of AI chatbots presents a more disconcerting challenge: these seemingly empathetic voices risk further blurring the lines between human connection and technological simulation. Navigating this evolving landscape demands acute emotional intelligence – the ability to recognize and remain attuned to our own feelings in the face of ever-shifting digital realities.
This, ultimately, is how we can best steer our relationship with technology and ensure it remains a tool that enhances, rather than eclipses, the richness of human experience.
