How to Tune Out the Noise
In a world where our attention is increasingly being divided and sold, how do you avoid the background noise of media, politics, and technology? There is a lot of vague advice online to “turn inward” and “practice mindfulness,” but what does this mean and how does it work practically?
Most updates to modern technology are designed to keep our attention for as long as possible. Our attention is so profitable it has lined the pockets of Silicon Valley developers for decades. It is the reason why all news is “breaking news” and why it may feel so hard to disengage with the wider world and turn our attention inward. If this is something you struggle with you are not alone. According to the National Library of Medicine, one-third of Americans qualify for severe social media addiction with a majority of Americans having some form of mild addiction to social media. Outside of social media; television, video games, and other apps can take up a lot of time. There are apps to download that can block the use of other apps. Every download, click, and ad may not be a problem inherently, but collectively, these things may take more of your time than you would like. Here are some strategies to avoid the noise and recenter yourself.
Commit to a goal
This may mean not visiting certain apps or sites for a few hours to a few weeks. It all depends on where you are starting from. Make a goal that is reasonable and can be achieved, and then you can make a new goal afterward. You may want to make a goal to not be on your phone or to not watch TV for a week, but that may be hard to manage, especially if you have a job that needs you to contact them or children who want you to watch things with them.
Journaling and meditation
We have all heard about these, but it can be hard to implement them or know where to start. If you are new to these practices, it is unrealistic to journal 5 pages every day or meditate for hours on end. Take a few minutes at the beginning or end of your day to unwind and practice one of these strategies. Try to make it a habit. If you get used to meditating for 2 minutes every day you can slowly increase over time, without it feeling like a hard adjustment. The same can be said for journaling. You can start by just writing down a few bullet points of what happened in your day and potentially work up to longer more reflective journaling later on. I will include resources at the end of this post for both of these practices.
Schedule specific times and activities without technology
If you have a specific time when you avoid the use of technology, it will be easier to resist than just having a nebulous goal of using less technology. This may look like having a couple of hours on a Saturday where you put your phone away and go for a walk or read a book, or even when you go out with friends or family, try leaving your phone behind. Dedicating specific times and events to be tech-free will give you a more concrete plan than just putting down your phone and wondering “What now?”
Exercise
Whether it is intense training in the gym or taking your dog for a walk, exercise releases natural dopamine that will make your body and mind feel better. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that can make us feel good. Technology was developed to play on our brain’s reward system and to give us as much dopamine as possible without having to move an inch. This is why it may feel so hard to stop. By adding healthy behaviors instead of just taking away unhealthy ones, our goals can be more achievable. Our brains our like petulant children who want all the dessert, but we can negotiate with our impulses and have one cookie instead of the whole fridge.
Negotiate Meaning
Whether that is a spiritual practice or just a good reason for you to use less technology (you don’t like the way it feels), understand your reasoning and work to center it in all that you do. Whether it is for the love of a god, the universe, or yourself and your family/friends, there are countless individual reasons to be more present in your life. The endless scroll, all the streaming options, video games, etc. will all be there whether you are consuming them or not. It may feel like there is constant pressure to continually engage in all of this, but making sure your intention is always at the front of your mind will help you resist and find a place for technology in your life, rather than having technology run your life.
Staying informed/political action
It may feel like you need to consume media to stay up to date on politics or to be informed about the world around you. This may be true in some sense, but if the news is making you feel bad, how helpful is it to you? Instead of watching headline after headline of decisions that scare you or make you sad, get on the ground. There are countless organizations for every political issue and identity that are working to make change in your area. Petitioning local government, attending protests, and meeting with other people will all be more fulfilling than just being informed of what is happening. Also switching to something less rewarding, like a cut-and-dry news podcast, will be less triggering to the dopamine system, than inflammatory social media posts that are designed to make us angry or sad. I will include some options at the end.
Make your technology work for you
There is rarely ever an instagram or twitter DM that needs your immediate attention. Use programs already on your devices to limit this. You can turn off notifications for specific apps or all apps. You can put screen time limits on specific apps to remind yourself you are trying to interact less.
Make it an event
If you are excited about watching a show, starting a new video game, or listening to a new podcast, try inviting a friend or partner to do it with you. It’s alright to indulge in media, and even beneficial in small amounts, but watching it with other people will give a more structured time of how much and when you can do these activities. This will help limit time spent on these devices as well as serve as a time of connection between you and your loved ones.
Location-specific technology
Previously, when it was only landline phones and a family TV/computer, it was much easier to limit the use of technology. It was too inconvenient and uncomfortable to sit in one spot for hours on end, so it worked to be a natural limitation of our technology usage. Now, we have phones at our fingertips that have more computing power than the computers that got the first man on the moon. Technology is so incredibly accessible, which is good and bad. I love being able to Google when I don’t know something or text a friend when I am far away from them, but it also makes it easy to spend hours or days constantly checking something or looking at a screen. A way to mitigate this is to have a dedicated spot for your technology devices. This may mean moving devices so they are not in your bedroom, or having a specific spot to leave your computer, phone, or TV. This means that you have to go to the device and make a conscious decision to be on it, rather than it already being in your hand, with you not even remembering why you picked it up in the first place. This makes time spent on technology more intentional.
There are lots of specific online “hacks” to limit technology usage, but ultimately we have to make a decision and follow through. Technology usage can be a hard problem to mitigate in an increasingly digital world, but it isn’t impossible. Celebrate little successes of not using your devices for an hour or reading a book when you would normally be scrolling on your phone.
Here are some additional resources
Meditation
Beginner two-minute mediation for focus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtE00VP4W3Y
Five-minute meditation for positive energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j734gLbQFbU
Tara Brach is a famous American psychologist known for her “blend of Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practice” Check out her many free guided meditations here https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations/
Journaling prompts
Beginner guide to journaling
https://www.wondermind.com/article/journaling/
Journaling prompts from psychologists for a variety of purposes
https://positivepsychology.com/journaling-for-mindfulness/#prompts
Getting involved/political action
ACLU of Colorado: American Civil Liberties Union, help your local community fight for civil rights/liberties https://www.coloradocoalition.org/getinvolved
Volunteer Match: finding volunteer opportunities to help your community
https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/orgs.jsp?l=Denver
Western Colorado Alliance for Community Action: get involved in politics
https://westerncoloradoalliance.org/campaigns/grassroots-democracy/
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado: get outside and volunteer at the same time! https://www.voc.org/
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless: help unhoused people
https://www.coloradocoalition.org/getinvolved
This is a non-exhaustive list and there are many organizations out there fighting for what you care about, a simple Google search should get you on the right track. An example search: Colorado grassroots organization for [insert issue you care about!].
News podcasts
The World from PRX: public radio program that discusses world news
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-world/id278196007
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5khGv7sgPiiHySV1Rg6jyF
Online Access: https://theworld.org/
Colorado Today CPR: local news for Colorado which gives updates that are less than 15 min each day
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/colorado-today/id1796849755
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HoYB1A4L8V3RlKCtHZy2l
Online:
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1266565029/colorado-today
There are many more that do a brief explanation of news. Please feel free to visit the website (click on the organization and it will lead to the podcast website) to decide the best one for you!
Reuters World News, Reuters
Up First, NPR
The Daily, NYT
Today Explained, Vox
Post Reports, Washington Post
Today in Focus, The Guardian
Start Here, ABC
The Take, Al Jazeera
Front Burner, CBC
The Journal, Wall Street Journal
Global News Podcast, The BBC
Citations
Kelter, D., & Kim, N. (2021, August 5). Episode 97: How to tune out the noise. Greater Good Science Center. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/how_to_tune_out_the_noise_mindful_breathing
Pellegrino, A., Stasi, A., & Bhatiasevi, V. (2022, November 10). Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use: A Bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in psychiatry. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9707397/
Roberts, K. (2015, March 22). Tech cleanse: Keeping life in balance. Kevin J Roberts. https://kevinjroberts.net/resources/cyber-addiction/tech-cleanse-keeping-life-in-balance/
