How to Achieve Digital Mindfulness

Compulsive distraction involves a compulsion to move away, repeatedly and uncontrollably, from your initial purpose. The behaviour may be motivated from either an internal or external source (Oraison, Nash-Dolby, Wilson, and Malhotra, 2020).

Internal Distraction

What precipitates a distraction whereby we are lacking the ability to pay attention? There are internal distractions such as hunger, fatigue, illness, worrying, and daydreaming.

However, the inability to hold one’s attention is mostly due to a low level of internal resistance to outside influences. Internal resistance to distraction in the modern techno world is easily sabotaged by unlimited choices.

When distraction is triggered by a lack of interest, there may also be a lack of motivation or purpose. When intrinsic motivation is low, lack of interest will be high.

When one’s sense of purpose is low, lack of interest will again be high. A person who becomes satiated, or fed up, with a learning task or recreational pursuit may also be vulnerable to an eventual lack of interest. At the tipping point of one’s lack of interest, distractibility becomes more inviting.

External Distraction

Losing interest in an activity or task leads to seeking an alternative interest. The availability of alternatives has never been greater. We have the world wide web at our fingertips.

Boredom thresholds are challenged by the sheer volume of possible distractions we can sequester. Screens are everywhere—in the home, in the car, at school, at university, at the sports bar, at the medical centre, in the airport, and in the gym.

External distraction as an escape is all about coping. In this sense, distraction may serve a positive purpose, possibly to avoid stress or conflict. The escape, however, is most likely only a temporary solution.

Compulsive Distraction

In Harriet Griffey’s 2018 article, “The Lost Art of Concentration: Being Distracted in the Digital World,” she raises the connection of distraction to continuous partial attention (CPA). CPA was a phrase coined by the ex-Apple and Microsoft consultant Linda Stone. Stone (2020) believed

...by adopting an always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace behaviour, we exist in a constant state of alertness that scans the world but never really gives our full attention to anything.

Accounting for the idea of CPA, compulsive distraction appears to be labile and habitual. Both distraction and compulsive behavior are extremely reactive and reflexive in nature. Internal and external, as well as hybrid triggers, ignite reactions of behaviour that are not reflective and thoughtful. The “mindfulness” potentiality is absent.

Schwartz (2015) states

The brain’s craving for novelty, constant stimulation and immediate gratification creates something called a “compulsion loop.”

Micro-decisions occur in the context of multitasking that include performing two or more activities simultaneously in the digital world or combining digital tasks at the same time as performing nondigital activities. The combination of connectivity and multitasking is shown to be counterproductive and unhealthy in the long term.

Perhaps psychology needs to advance the idea of a “digital mindfulness” for the digital era. What skills would we need to initiate a movement toward a digital mindfulness?

Achieving Digital Mindfulness

Here are some of the skills for improving digital mindfulness. Additional skills may be needed over time.

• Pause a moment to notice your thoughts and sensations.
• Disengage momentarily to manage reactive automatic responses.
• Focus on your breathing to diffuse tension.
• Reflect on what is important, not reflexive.
• Manage your own reactions and relation to outside events.
• Determine your own level of meaning and satisfaction.
• Bring your awareness to the present moment.
• Be congruent with your body and your environment.
• Provide your eyes and mind respite from screens.
• Allow yourself digital disengagement.

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Mindfulness proposes an increased awareness at any present moment leading to increased attention on activities, minimising distracting thoughts and unconscious habits and behaviours. The use of social media and other digital engagement may include mindless behaviours affecting areas of attention, intention, and attitude as well as reducing stress and frustration.

Digital mindfulness can also assist individuals in focusing on one task at a time, closing their mind to alternative or distracting tasks. Sophie Leroy (2009) proposed the concept of attention residue when switching between work tasks. This residue has a cognitive detrimental impact as the mechanistic nature of multitasking reduces the ability to concentrate on the second task. In addition to cognitive consequences, the concept of attention residue also includes a diminished psychological presence relating to the second task. Leroy found that individuals who completed one task before commencing another were less productive due to effects of attention residue.

Furthermore, individuals who are more successful at regulating their attention with cognitive closure rather than with the completion of the task are able to focus better on the next task. Leroy points to mindfulness as a possible solution to train individuals to have their minds more focused on the present, minimising the attention residue from previous tasks.

We are currently enmeshed in a world of truncation. The short cut is the only pathway of interest. Where is the time taken to reflect and create a vision through insight? Through a more reflective digital mindfulness, rather than a reflexive approach, the mitigation of compulsive distraction could initially commence. Inattentive of the skills for a more mindful utilization of technology, compulsive distraction will continue to impact our purpose, our meaningfulness, and our lives.