“It’s been more than 10 years since I started worrying that life was out of balance,” began David Levy, professor at the Washington University Information School. In a world characterized by information overload, fragmentation and busyness, Levy said that students today often find that there’s “no time to think” – no time to breathe, listen and engage with life. “We now have the most remarkable tools for scholarship and learning the world has ever known,” Levy explained. “How is it that we have less time to think than ever before?”
“Since the Industrial Revolution, there has been a devotion to doing things faster, more efficiently,” Levy said. “Our more-faster-better philosophy of life privileges speedy ‘efficient’ production over slower, more receptive and reflective modes of engagement. What’s more, our newest tools—” such as social networking sites and personal computers, “—have been enrolled in this enterprise.”
Levy explained that activities requiring a “slower rhythm” no longer fit in our fast-paced, digitized way of life. “I’m not saying that the problem starts with things like Facebook,” Levy said. Rather, these new technologies are symptomatic of a larger ideology already at work, the latest of a series of innovations meant to accelerate production and consumption.
“We are a culture in need of contemplative balance,” said Levy. “I’m not against efficiency and speed, but where is the balance point between those actions that can be completed quickly and those that require more time and slower reflection?” In an effort to find this mental balance, Levy has organized a series of conferences and workshops, developed and taught contemplative information practices, engaged in experimental work in meditation and multitasking, and explored undergraduate attitudes toward information technology.
“It was 2005, and I was teaching an undergrad class,” Levy said. “So here are all students who are going into IT, and they’re going to be really good techies. And here I am concerned about this question of balance, and I wondered how the students feel about it.” To that end, Levy composed a short questionnaire and asked his students to complete it. Since then, he has administered the same questionnaire to colleges and universities all over the country.
In response to questions such as “Do you ever feel like you spend too much time online?” and “Do you ever feel the need to quiet down and slow down?” 90 percent of all students surveyed responded in the affirmative. Levy also found that many students expressed frustration with the amount of time they spent online and the pressure to be continually connected.
“I felt like I was more engaged in the world,” wrote one student after having finally chosen to “unplug” from the seeming omnipresence of technology. “It’s so much more rewarding to initiate conversation with people in person. I feel like I could do a lot more when I wasn’t texting someone because I facing them, and the person actually has to think of a reply on the spot instead of waiting to respond.”
Another student said that “it made me much more aware when people were on the phone, and when people would check their phone during our conversation. I don’t know if they realized it, but it made me feel like I wasn’t important.”
Another student intuited that “the idea of productivity is very much part of our society. ‘Time out’ is a punishment, sitting quietly. It’s not considered something helpful or positive.”
“I don’t think the choice is between being plugged and unplugged,” said Levy, concluding the lecture. “The issue is finding a balance where we are more in touch with ourselves and with what constitutes a good life.”
