Dear Simple Solutions,

You’re made to assist us, but it feels as though you’re actually deceiving us. The Do Not Disturb mode is supposed to block out distractions, yet as Nir Eyal points out:

“All new iPhones have an option where you could be told how much Screen Time you spent that day and that week, and a Do Not Disturb function where you can block out incoming messages” — Stolen Focus (Chapter 8).

Screen Time promises an in-depth breakdown of our device usage. Notifications, similar to the news, claim to keep us updated with emails, social media, and even alerts for a new Netflix show you may like. However, in reality, most of us never change them.

“Two-thirds of people with a smartphone never
change their notification settings. What? Right? This is not hard stuff. We just need to do this kind of stuff” — Nir Eyal, Stolen Focus (Chapter 8).

But, unlike what Eyal claims, how simple is it really? Especially when the technology itself is designed to hook its users into using our devices? To pull us back in?

In fact, technology is so addictive that even a small button at the bottom of the screen, despite having time limits set, can convince a user to click it. This eventually leading to the user ignoring the limits they’ve already put in place. This raises the question:

Are these truly simple solutions, or do they only give the feeling of control over something that is out of our control?

This is something that Johann Hari identifies as cruel optimism. But what is meant by the term “cruel optimism?” Hari identifies it as something that:

“. . .sounds optimistic, because you are telling them that the problem can be solved, and soon – but it is, in fact, cruel, because the solution you are offering is so limited, and so blind to the deeper causes, that for most people, it will fail.” — Johann Hari, Stolen Focus (Chapter 8).

At first glance, these solutions may seem simple, almost like something that can be fixed with the click of a button. But Hari makes a crucial point about how it’s much deeper than the click of a button. Today’s reliance on technology runs much deeper and will in turn take more time to solve than simply pressing a button. The true issue is how our society has become so reliant on technology and content from our devices that we would no longer know what to do if these distractions suddenly disappeared.

For this reason, I believe that these solutions are not in fact simple. People, especially those in younger generations, will not stop utilizing their Instagram simply because they “ran out of time.” Unfortunately there are too many factors to consider, such as FOMO (also known as the fear of missing out), which applies to many things that appear on social media. Additionally, we have lost the ability to focus, meaning that eventually we will lose patience and do whatever is needed to get back onto our devices, which satisfy this short attention span.

So no, I don’t think we can take certain steps to stop ourselves and belief that this mindset is overly optimistic. Especially when thinking about the significant amount of factors that tie into this, similar to how Hari thinks. Maybe one day we’ll be able to find a solution, however, I don’t believe that trying to limit technology usage through technology itself is very effective.

Sincerely,

A phone lover who has attempted to limit their screen time