Addiction to Technology and Speed

Abstract

In this chapter we explore “distraction” for doctors and all people involved in health care as a consequence of living a pressured, speeded-up existence in the twenty-first century and as a consequence of adapting to a culture that is also speeded up and out of control. Distraction becomes a defense, a way to cope with internal and societal pressures to try harder and go faster that pushes people to keep going beyond their human limits and capacities for endurance. Finally, we explore “distraction” as an addiction, a compulsion to keep moving, to keep checking tech objects, and to keep switching focus, coupled with an inability to slow down or stop.

We explore four factors that maintain cultural addiction including a societal loss of control, a belief in no limits, a belief in the omnipotence of human power, and a belief in the rightness of dichotomous thinking.

Finally, we explore the idea of recovery. First, for doctors and all people in health, there is a problem of distraction. We must face the reality that individuals and health care as a whole are out of control and cannot try any harder, go any faster, or produce any more. This first step involves a paradoxical acceptance of failure, an acknowledgment that distraction has become an out of control addiction.

As we accept the reality of individual and societal loss of control, we also accept the need for limits and the necessity of structure, both key changes necessary for a process of healthy recovery to develop.

Finally, we challenge society’s current grandiose value of BIG and accept the value of small steps as a behavioral, emotional, and cognitive map for positive change.