How technology addiction is robbing us of our best

Optimizing for Value

Over the past several months I have found myself going days if not weeks without checking my Facebook or Instagram apps on my phone.

What’s shocked me the most, is how little I miss it.

This change hasn’t come through any isolated attempt to reduce or eliminate my time spent on these platforms. Instead, as I have re-focused (read: spent countless hours thinking, journalling, meditating) on how I want to spend my time and energy on this planet — after the end to my Olympic pursuit — I have doubled down on my intention to optimize the investment of those resources towards experiences where I am part of a positive value exchanging experiences.

Value Exchange

My simple definition of a positive value-exchange is one where there is the opportunity for me to create real value for those I am around or learn and grow through the value I receive from others or the experience itself.

The assessment of whether an experience has “value-potential” is directly connected to my internal set of core values — the non-negotiables I desire to live my life by.

Examples of core-values I have established in my life include: spending quality time with family and close friends, increasing my depth of leadership capacity and building Digital Hot Sauce into a world class team, delivering “The Deep End Mindset” workshop to youth, Millennials and young leaders, learning and apprenticing from intrinsically motivated leaders who have developed world class skills in my areas of passion — leadership, human performance, intuition, etc.

Evaluating Facebook and Instagram against Value

As I took back the ownership of my time, energy and focus based on the criteria described above it became abundantly clear I experience very little true value from time invested in these platforms.

As I take a step back, here are some of my observations:

• I don’t find these platforms conducive to deep learning or growth. While there is undeniably informative and inspiring subject matter and people — the format is too short and shallow for me to apply enough time and mental energy into a single topic that allows for the new insights I am after. I contrast this to the insights that come from a 2 hour farming session at O’Bella Farms listening to an audiobook.
• I experience envy, jealousy & FOMO when I get sucked into the feeds. This doesn’t feel healthy. And it deeply concerns me that the entire design of the platform is engineered to create this experience in us when we consume and conversely a short but quickly emptying ego-boost when we are on the content contributing side.
• I am connecting with family and friends outside of these platforms.
  I do love seeing updates from family and friends on these platforms. That said, these are generally the people I talk, text and get to spend quality time with in person.
• I am not using these platforms to build a business, online community or create the appearance that I have online klout or fame. All of which have use-cases on these platforms.

Be Intentional.

The approach I’ve landed on, described above, is not for everyone. It may seem selfish, boring, or simply unreasonable in nature — that’s OK, it’s a design that is specific to the outcomes I want to experience in life.

My hope is that the investment of time and energy on these platforms is an intentional one. If you haven’t taken the time to reflect and consider how the return on this time and energy makes either your life or the lives of those around you happier, healthier, more fulfilling and abundant — perhaps this post will initiate the exploration of this conversation within yourself.

If it does, I would love to hear what you learn.

I founded The Human Performance Project to equip humans, teams, and groups with the roadmap and tools required to pursue audacious goals, dreams and aspirations in the Deep End of life. You can learn more about this work here.