Yesterday morning I went to my yearly eye exam. As I was sitting in the exam room, the nurse and doctor repeatedly apologized for being slow because they just adopted a new computer system the day before. I told them I understood, because I knew what they were going through with my own work experiences. I then asked the optometrist if they received any training for the system. She said they received some training, but the most difficult part was resolving what the medical field deemed important and what software engineers deemed important.
This reminded me of my mother’s situation as a nurse when the hospital transitioned from a paper-based charting process to a software system. One of the most difficult aspects was having to please the system over making eye contact and communicating with the patient as much as before. Using pen and paper allowed her to be a nurse in a way she couldn’t with an interconnected system that required specific entries before completion. While I’m grateful for the ease of digital systems, I still wonder what we have given up for this ease of use.
Kernel Panic
On July 19, 2024, millions of computer systems went down due to a bad software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The software was able to access the Windows kernel, the innermost root point of an operating system. Once the faulty update went out, millions of users, including airports, banks, universities, and hospitals, received the “blue screen of death.” The screen indicates a kernel panic. Similar to a panic attack in a human, the CPU shuts down to protect itself from a fatal error that could cause harm to the computer. This screen was a normal occurrence to Windows users in the 1990s and 2000s (especially when you infected your computer with viruses trying to download music from Limewire with a 56K modem. RIP Gateway Cow Computer).
This catastrophe was yet another reminder of how the systems we use to operate in the world today are run by interconnected webs owned by a few big corporations. Cloud computing has made our digital lives easier to manipulate, but it also provides an increasing burden as we rely on these companies to handle data in our lives. It’s not wrong to discern how connected we want to be. I think many of us are _more _connected than we want to be. We can’t turn on a TV without connecting to the internet. We need passwords for every part of our lives. And once you type in your password, you need two-factor authentication to verify that it was actually you who typed in the password. In a most bizarre example, someone on social media posted their smart refrigerator that displayed the blue screen of death when Microsoft went down. Apparently some refrigerators need passwords, too.
Inflection Point
I don’t want to sound like a curmogeon; I merely want to reflect on the burden on our interconnectedness and how it can create burdens in our mental and spiritual lives. These systems can wreak havoc in our lives if we let them, not just through catastrophic blue screens of death, but also through our daily actions in our vocations. Our lives increasingly rely on screens and interfaces. And that is bringing us to an inflection point to where the intangible is demanding more work than what humans can offer. The connected world promised us a life of free time, but the opposite has happened as we have more time to fill in with more work. How do we navigate a world full of interfaces that demand our time and attention?
1. Ask yourself what you have control over. Why are you in front of the screen? What do you need to accomplish? What boundaries do you need to set? You can easily get sucked into a rabbit hole of problems, especially with notifications popping up around each corner.
2. Disconnect when possible. Remember you live in a tangible world. For millions of years humans interacted with real objects in the world. Use a pen. Read on paper. Play an instrument. Write your ideas through the constraints given in a notebook.
3. Make the digital subordinate to the analog whenever you can. My most creative ideas come from pen and paper. I only use the computer when I have a greater sense of how I need to execute those ideas.
4. Make social media subordinate to real interaction. This can be difficult when you have close friends who live in other places, or if you live in a place where it’s difficult to feel accepted. But as much as possible, we need to balance our digital lives with our physical lives. If your social media friends live close to you, make sure meeting in person is more important than reading their status updates.
5. Dedicate time for silence. This is difficult for me. I like noise in the background to distract myself. But at times my brain craves silence. For me, it becomes easier when I’m doing something in the silence, such as taking a walk or writing.
This is not an exhaustive list, and it’s contingent on how we’re wired. We’re all unique individuals with individual needs and environments. But for me, these elements are essential for me to attempt living in this interconnected cyber world.
"...from the outside our ears are filled with the racket of the city, the words of those who have accompanied us, the laboring and quarreling of our own thoughts, the disquiet of our hearts’ wishes and worries, hurts and joys. How are we possibly to hear what God is saying? That we listen at all is something; not everyone does. It is even better when we pay attention and make a real effort to understand what is being said. " —Msgr. Romano Guardini
Read this quote today and thought about this blog. :)
I have started reading real books. I never did Kindle or E-Books, so reading has really been online newspapers and social media...I'm ashamed to admit.
As far as noise. I am a no-noise person. I could sit in silence for hours and anything but the quietest music is simply too much. It distracts me from the VERY IMPORTANT chatter in my head. I think I should probably cultivate listening to some kind of music so the VERY IMPORTANT conversation can take a break...