Today I want to talk about the idea of “Ditch the screen, embrace the green!” which is a mantra I created for myself some months ago. This little mantra helps me regulate my use of technology, makes me regularly get rid of the screen by leaving it behind or turning it off, and reminds me where my heart is–in the green. And friends, we really need to talk about this right now for a few reasons.  First, I have noticed a phenomenon where a lot of my friends say they are leaving social media or taking a break, but always somehow get sucked back in. But also, its getting bad with the phones, to the point where =people are glued to their phones more than ever before. You can’t even go to a park without people having their faces in their phones–it’s like everyone has become a zombie. They literally run into you while on their phones. What’s on there that takes all of everyone’s attention? But third which is the thing I always fight against, the system does not want to let you go, so there are a million ways that the system makes the phone so necessary to everyday life that getting rid of one would be almost impossible  (digital-only tickets, work-related authentication apps, telehealth, banking access, etc). In fact, at present, more than 90% of Americans have a smartphone. I couldn’t get rid of mine because of my work-related authentication apps and job.  Even so, I work to eliminate its presence from my life and to limit the hold it has on me.

I think part of it is that when the Internet first came into being back in the day, it took work to connect–you had to sit down at your computer, dial up through your modem, literally make your phone line busy, and then spend some time on the web. There were competing values – nobody could call you if you were online, so your mom would never let you stay on long. That was a good thing. Wow have things changed since the early 90’s; now you are literally tethered to your phone–by intention and by design.

I want to frame my argument about ditching the screen and embracing the green by going way back to the 1970’s to some wisdom from that age. Back in the 1970’s, Jerry Mander wrote a book called Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.  As in the case of many good books written in the 1970’s, they are actually more relevant today than when they were written (for more examples of this see books like Limits to Growth, Unsettling of America, or any book about gardening).  Something powerful was going on in human consciousness in the 1970’s, and we would have a very different reality now if that had not been shut down by the excessive 1980’s. But also, in the 1970’s people were somehow more critical and conscious of the entire capitalist consumerist system, it wasn’t nearly as insidious–now for us, 50 years later, we see how far it has gone further on the same path, and just how bad it is for all of us.   In today’s post, I want to really dig into the current technological phenomenon and suggest that you might work to “ditch the screen, embrace the green” (yes, I came up with that slogan and I rather like it! Maybe I’ll make some bumper stickers to give out or something).

Five Arguments for the Elimination of Screens

Mander actually makes 5 arguments in his book, but the first one is in his opening chapter, so I’ll share all five :).

Argument 0: Technology is not neutral, it predetermines how we use it, who uses it, when it is used, and the effects it has on everyday life.

Mander’s first argument is made in his opening chapter and serves as a foundation for the rest of the book.  He writes, “Most Americans, whether on the political left, center, or right will argue that technology is neutral, that any technology is merely a benign instrument, a tool, and depending upon the hands into which it falls, it may be used one way or another….it is the central point of this book that these assumptions about television, as about other technologies, are totally wrong.” (p. 43).  He outlines a series of examples. One is Automobiles – by accepting and using automobiles, you accept that roads must be created, that oil must be pumped and consumed, that humans have to sit in fixed positions for hours, and eventually human beings turn into “car people” who are adapted to this technology. (I would argue that accepting cars into everyday life also means that we’ve allowed for radical expansion of cities and commuting, among other things).  He makes another observation about mass production, where the basic premise is that a small number of people supervise the daily existence of a larger number of daily people, spending long hours, every day, in repetitive work–the behavior of the workers is now part of the machine.  These technologies are not neutral.  Any technology creates and shapes behavior, and as we have now a much longer history of research that was present in the 1970’s, they are also fundamentally changing our brain chemistry among other things. The technologies that we use in our world are fundamentally reshaping our world–our bodies, nature, our minds, our spirits. And even our ecosystem.

By accepting the fact that these technologies–screens of all kinds–phones, televisions, computers, screens in cars, you name it–are not neutral but rather are tools of power and control opens up a whole set of questions.  Who holds the power? Why are they created and perpetuated? How are they used to manipulate and control? What are they getting in return? Mander writes, “In all of these instances, the basic form of the institution and technology determines its interaction with the world, the way it is used, the kind of people who use it, and to what ends.”  It is true with all technologies, and certainly true today.

Think about the proliferation of short-form video, which arose very strongly a few years ago and is currently addling my dyslexic brain, and I’m sure is messing up a lot of other people’s brains as well.  Who decided that videos were the way to go? Why do we need 5 or 30-second videos everywhere and embedded in everything? What are they actually accomplishing?  Why do we all have to be subjected to them? And even for people like me, who actually have problems with them concerning my learning disability, how am I still sucked into watching them? (And what you will discover is that they are really hard to block).

So, perhaps sit with that first premise for a while.  I certainly have sat with it for a while, and it has led me, in part, to take periods of time where I eliminate all screens from my life, and really spend healthy time in skepticism of this technology. People laugh at me, and call me primitive, but it’s ok. They laugh at me and shake their heads when I say that I’m not a fan of technology in general.  How can you not be a fan of tech, Dana? It’s our world!  Well, I respond, it is simple–tech isn’t neutral. And I don’t like what it takes from me, and I don’t like what it makes me into. So, no, I don’t want yet another Instapot as a gift to help “speed up” my life, I’d rather just do it the old-fashioned way with my own skillsets.

So now, let’s move into Jerry Mander’s specific Four Arguments Against Television to go a bit deeper.  I am adapting his term “television” to screens but am otherwise leaving his arguments intact.

Argument 1: Screens mediate your experience.

Screens “wall off” your awareness and deprive your senses.  Screens also deprive you of authentic learning experiences.  Finally, they create an alternative reality that is not real but seems real.

Well Jerry, not only were you right then, but you even more right now.  I am thinking about the new technologies that literally cut you off completely from the world–things like immersive VR or even just the screen that narrows and becomes the whole world. And how many people do you know that have a serious video game addiction and literally play games to the point where that’s their only reality?  I think we’ve gotten well beyond even “mediating” an experience and deprivation of authenticity, at this point, we are in wholesale of determining and creating your reality.

One of the immediate problems with screens mediating our experience is that the technological world creates its own reality.  How many people are glued to the 24/7 news cycle and use that to frame their reality? Who decides what is shown to you, what is reported, and what is said? We talk about “algorithms” but really, it’s not an algorithm that mediates your experience–it is a set of powerful humans that are literally reshaping our world and our reality.

Argument 2: Screens colonize your experience.

You as a human being become the appropriated commodity: TV/media/screens create need and value where none existed, and we are encouraged to buy our way into a new identity.  It also seeks to control you in more sinister ways by influencing what you think, and do, and making you feel lacking and depressed.

Jerry again hits the nail on the head.  I think about things like Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms.  They are run by companies whose only goal is to make money. These companies will do anything to make more money, and many of them are richer than 75% of people in the world–clearly these technologies are good at their intended purpose.  You are the commodity, if you aren’t paying for it with cash, it is literally shaping you into a commodity.

There’s the other issue, which is that your phone is listening to you.  I know it has happened to all of us: we have a conversation about something and there happens to be a phone sitting nearby.  The next time you go online, you are proliferated with ads about that very thing.  If there is any doubt in your mind, try it yourself and see what happens.  I prefer to leave the phone away from myself (in another room, at home, in my car, etc) because it is basically a listening device that is used to extract resources from me.

I think that what I’m sharing about advertising is one of the less sinister versions of colonizing your experience. Consider how much of a screen mediates your reality and can create realities that doesn’t exist–its all mediated by screens.  If you turned off the phone and went outside, what is your reality there vs. the reality that the screens tell you?  One of the realities that I see outside is that climate change is much worse and faster than anything I read on the screen.  I wonder why we aren’t talking about it, when I live it so clearly and see it right outside of my door.  Unfortunately, human-created realities and experiences are not real realities, and the reality of this is starting to become unavoidable.

Again, it is helpful to meditate on this.

Argument 3: Screens have detrimental effects on human beings.

These detrimental effects (already identified in the 1970’s) include

• People are “sick, crazy, and mesmerized” where the human is literally “dimmed out” and replaced with artificial sensory experience and artificial reality.
• Artificial light’s detrimental effects on the body (from late-night television screens)
• Screens create stress and they are is not relaxing; Mander argues that television actually hypnotizes us, bypasses our conscious mind, and subconsciously alters us. This is even more true with modern technology.
• People are being “turned into images” and are then therefore “image factories” and work to imitate what we see on TV/screens
  • As an artist, I literally became an image factory with the advent of AI.
• People’s own images are “replaced by television” images that are irresistible; of course, we are seeing this everywhere now.  People don’t make their own music, they don’t make their own art, they don’t make anything else–they just let the screens do it for them.

I could cite a lot of studies here to talk about how things have gotten progressively worse in the last 50 years, but a quick Google Scholar search will show approximately 7,780,000 studies for just “screen time effects.”  Rather than cite studies, I have two experiments or suggestions for you to try to see how bad this is.

Experiment 1: Do a cell phone detox for a few days and see what happens

Get rid of the phone and screens for a few days.  No, really, go ahead and do it.  I do several retreats during the year, including my 10-day going dark retreat in early January and usually 1-2 other retreat weekends during the year. Here’s information on Going dark and also on Druid Retreats parts 1 and 2.  You don’t even have to do a retreat (although an intentional approach to this helps), but simply, put the phone down, turn off the computer and the TV, and see what happens. You will learn a lot from the experience.

It often goes something like this: first you are literally in withdrawal for a few days. You experience the same kind of symptoms that any addict would–anxiety, irritability, not knowing what to do for yourself, longing for it, reaching for it when it isn’t there.  You literally feel like something is missing. But then after some time, usually 1-2 days, you start to realize that your life is better and richer without it.  You start to do all kinds of things you normally wouldn’t, and it becomes a very sacred experience.  You can fill your life with real, tangible things.

Experiment 2: Pre-Post Check in

There is a mini-version of this that involves detoxing for a few hours, then re-integrating it and seeing how you feel after each.  For Part 1, go outside for a walk and leave your phone behind.  Hang out with some geese or mushrooms, go wandering off without a plan, and maybe come back in later and cook dinner. Don’t interact with the screens for an hour or three or a whole afternoon.  Now, check in with your mind, body, and spirit.

Second, add the screen back in:

• Begin by noting what time it is.
• Now, go online to whatever social media you use.  Open it up, and do whatever you would normally do when you are using it.
• When you are done, note what time it is.
• Now, check in with yourself again. How do you now feel <mind, body, spirit, heart?

There is true power in the lived experience.  believe in the power of personal experience.  Try these and let me know how they go for you.

Argument 4: Screens are inherently biased and that bias affects humans [and all life] adversely. 

This is a pretty obvious one that many of us intellectually understand but may not realize how this affects our every day waking reality. Bias is rampant in these technologies, which mediate our experience. This includes what is included/excluded; how images can not represent reality or be misleading; an emphasis on sensationalism and “peaks” rather than everyday experience; and what falls through the filter of television.

I would argue that this bias doesn’t just affect humans adversely, it affects all of nature, which is being destroyed by humans, adversely. What concerns me at present is that this bias makes people generally pay a lot of attention to things that don’t matter much and much less attention to things that actually matter a lot.  I keep going back to what is happening to the planet in the age of the Anthropocene–ice shelf collapses, species going extinct, fires, floods, droughts–and the powers that be don’t want that. They don’t want to hear about it, they don’t want us to talk about it, because in each case it cuts into their bottom line.

It always amazes me to read things from the 1970’s (many of my favorite books are from this decade) and realize how much more these books apply today.  While I can’t comment on this entire book’s four major arguments, just reading this list above and thinking about the current situation: social media with an extreme number of short and meaningless yet addicting video clips, the creation of Deep Fakes and the whole AI situation–these words ring truer than they ever have before.

Ditch the Screen, Embrace the Green

When I consider the above five arguments, it makes total sense to either work to fully eliminate the screens or at least, greatly reduce their presence in your life. What I find crazy is that we are paying for this stuff?  We pay money for it, but most importantly, we pay for it in our attention and in our time. But as we’ve explored above, these technologies are meant to keep you addicted, meant to worm their way into stealing your attention at any moment. They are intentionally designed that way, and they shape everything about our lives. They are meant to give you a dopamine rush to your brain, to keep you coming back for more and more.  And yet, they generally sap our life energy, create new realities, and poison our minds.  And yet, it is very hard to limit and stop them.

So what’s a druid to do?  The title of this post says it all–ditch the screen and embrace the green! Since this post has gotten quite long, I’ll elaborate more in next week’s post. 🙂