A mindful proposal: Can you handle 24 hours of solitude?
Filed under: Extracurriculars
In our BlackBerried, Twittered, internet-overload culture, our nervous systems are too overstimulated for us to have the time to think. My father, Dr. Leo Chalupa, a neurobiologist and head of research for George Washington University, in 2006 wrote an essay advocating overworked, web-junkie Americans to take 24 hours of absolute solitude. No books, no movies, no texting, no media intake or interaction of any kind. It's just you and your thoughts. For 24 hours. Pretty scary, huh?"Unless you've spent time in a monastery or in solitary confinement, it's unlikely that you've had to deal with this issue," my father wrote. "The only activity not proscribed is thinking. Imagine if everyone in this country had the opportunity to do nothing but engage in uninterrupted thought for one full day a year! A national day of absolute solitude would do more to improve the brains of all Americans than any other one-day program."
This week, New York's cover story "In Defense of Distraction" presented some shocking facts about what technology is doing to our brains. "People who frequently check their e-mail have tested as less intelligent than people who are actually high on marijuana," Sam Anderson writes. And although technology has made our lives easier and entertainment cheaper, Anderson writes, pure, unadulterated, distraction-free thinking has become a luxury; what we really need, he argues, is time to think: "This sort of free-associative wandering is essential to the creative process; one moment of judicious unmindfulness can inspire thousands of hours of mindfulness."
There is a hope that managing and learning to master all this technology will make our brains adapt and evolve us into super-multitaskers. If anyone knows multitasking, it's my old man: hitting the gym every day by 7 a.m., overseeing a busy laboratory, writing grants and meeting grant deadlines in a competitive environment for science funding, being a babysitting grandpa, cooking, housekeeping, gardening, caring for my aging grandmother, and being a doting husband and dad. The only stimulant he uses to keep up with all these demands is herbal tea. Everything else is good old-fashioned prioritizing, organization, and a zero-tolerance policy on procrastination. (I did not inherit those particular genes.)
So I asked my dad, for WalletPop's "Blogtalk Radio Show," how technology is shaping our brains, how to be an effective multi-tasker free of technologies' distractions, and about his radical idea of a daylong period of solitude. Could you do it?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-07-2009 @ 9:40PM
Lida said...
we upload our brain with information and we don't realize that we damaging it. We forget to take a break and step out from the life we live.
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7-07-2009 @ 10:06PM
Sylvia Kieding said...
It looks like something i need.
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7-07-2009 @ 8:22PM
Roses said...
It wasn't that long ago that you needed to be connected to a phone that was connected to an electrical outlet in order to have a conversation with somebody that wasn't where you were. People were allowed the "luxury" of being in their cars or at dinner, or watching a movie, or kissing someone they love, or taking a shower, without being hounded by the constant vibration, ding, ring or awesome ring tone of your cell phone, email, or text message. We are somehow compelled to carry our little device (in whatever format you have it) everywhere we go and even worse, feel the need to answer it, however untimely it may be.
When we can't even get through half of the emails we receive every day, you gotta know something is out of balance. We get so many emails, that we have a place where our computer dumps the ones that are obviously not solicited or worth reading and that place is called the spam folder. Spam!!! That suspicious, mystery meat made up of the most unpleasant parts of an animal that most of us would not eat unless it was the last morsel of food on earth, is given to that rotten kind of undesireable information that we receive on a regular basis. In essence, our computer is sparing us from further overload. Nice.
Bon on top of the endless numbers of emails that go permanently unanswered, we twitter and facebook with people we don't even know and who live on the other side of the planet in many cases.
Do we really need to know what is "on your mind?" when I don't even know who you are? And why do we find it engaging when someone posts something criptic on their wall that only they and their best friend understand? Is this even considered "information" according to IOS? I doubt it.
Back in the day (and I'm not that old) we used to remember people's ACTUAL phone numbers because we did not have a cell phone or PDA with a memory. That kind of information actually helped our brains stay alert and quick (not of the spam variety).
So, is our IOS due to the amount of information we process daily or just the overwhelming blandness of it? Are we really overloaded with information or just addicted to a steady diet of useless information?
I say, pick up a good book, shut off the phone, the PDA and the computer and have yourself a good read. That kind of information is worth the overload.
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7-08-2009 @ 10:33AM
KEISHA L COLEMAN said...
THIS IS VERY FUNNY AND TRUE! WE CORPORATE AMERICA DEAL WITH IOS ALL DAY EVERYDAY. HOWEVER THERE ARE WAYS TO REBOUND. BEFORE ALL THIS HIGH TECH EQUIP WAS INVENTED HOW DID WE FUNCTION? EVERYDAY LIVING WAS MUCH BETTER THEN AND I PERSONALLY THINK EVERYONE FOR A WEEK NEED TO LIVE WITHOUT ALL THE EQUIP. WAY THE PROS /CONS THEN THEY WILL HAVE THERE SOLUTION TO THE MEMORY PROBLEM. STOP DEPENDING ON EMAIL,TWITTER CELL PHONES ETC. TO GET YOU THROUGH EVERYDAY LIVING.
7-08-2009 @ 11:39PM
Rosa Wilson said...
My plate gets overloaded every minute of the day. I could use some help!!!
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7-08-2009 @ 12:06AM
Bert said...
I've avoided this virus , by not drinking the water!
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7-08-2009 @ 12:31AM
Linda said...
Too much information, not enough meditation causes us to take medication. We all just need a break.
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7-17-2009 @ 7:01PM
Mike Thompson said...
For the last 4 years I have been sensing this syndrome.. time to retire, I believe.. Amazing so much communication and yet so much isolation from the human race..
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7-21-2009 @ 4:40PM
H.A. said...
PDA, what, just mastering the simple camera cell phone!
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7-25-2009 @ 4:24PM
Debbie said...
Is it possible to go without technology for a whole week???
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