I want to talk about everyday thresholds. Those seemingly unimportant interactions that change our state of being. Often in subtle ways. Even now, I feel compelled to check my phone. My impulse control has long since eroded… bear with me while I disappear from my body.
How often does technology pull us away from the here, now and physical?
Where are the places we travel in our minds… does Instagram have a home in the body?
How about the dark room gathering with the storyteller, Netflix?
I am not talking about the physical location of imagination (that is a conversation for another time). But the technological integration with your nervous system, neural chemicals and emotional regulation. I am talking about something far more powerful: enchantment.
Scrolls give me a temporary illusion that I have learnt something, gained something close to happiness. But I retain little. Other than the vaporous feeling of time passing. It’s almost like a dream.
These states of being have become so ordinary that we forget they were ever magical. That’s the thing about life changing technology. After the change comes the new normal. We must not forget that normal is a synonym for boring. Enchantment is a subtle art. It keeps me coming back even while being aware that I am utterly bored with the outcome. I enter the threshold of the internet every single day but I do not know how to get back out again. So, I feel asleep with my phone next to my bed.
It is easy to think that I got myself addicted to technology. Yes, I have responsibility. But addiction is different from enchantment. There are very real technomancers that tinker behind their glowing screens. All to keep us spellbound. Like you, I offer my precious life to the internet. Hour after hour after hour. Tell me, is your phone within reach right now?
My inquiry is this. Is it possible to have an embodied experience with the internet?
An experience that knows when to begin and how to end.
Thresholds open the way and allow us to return home.
Writing prompt
How often do you slip into the illusionary realms of the internet?
What is your body doing when your mind wanders an endless path?
Even now, your notifications demand attention.
I would like to offer a writing prompt.
Take a moment and remember a forgotten app. An unused program.
Think back to the version of you that installed it. Who were you then and who are you now… Is your relationship with the app still potent, still alive?
The invitation is to spend 6 minutes writing a letter to an app as if it were a long, distant friend…
Perhaps, you want to invite it back into your life…perhaps you want to cut them off.
Be unfiltered and unforgiving in your words. Let the truth out.
Or write loving and kind words to rekindle a relationship. Even if that relationship has moved beyond the app and moves back towards yourself.
This is an experimental prompt. Let me know how it goes.
Talk soon,
Harley.
P.S I know you have 6 minutes spare in your day. Stop scrolling while you poop and try writing instead.