I don't mean to sound like a luddite or a tech vegan or something, but I have some personal experiences with this. I got off Facebook years ago, because suddenly I felt like I was being pressured to keep people up to date with my life and it was making me unhappy. I didn't go through major withdrawal, but a few months later, I realized I was happier. I finally got off Reddit earlier this year, because I don't like the atmosphere of it and I didn't like how I constantly felt compelled to check Reddit to see what was being posted, what was being said, what statements were gonna make me angry, what statements I was gonna agree with, etc. I did go through quite a bit of a withdrawal, but a few months later, I realized I was happier. Shortly after Reddit, for a number of reasons, I gave up my smart phone and went back to a flip phone. No internet. No e-mails. No video games. Just calling, texting, and an MP3 player. I had no idea how much I was tied to my phone until I gave it up. Seriously. Every time I had a free moment, I pulled it out to check the time. Since I had it out to check the time, I'd do something else. I'd check my e-mail. I'd get on Hubski. I'd see what's going on in the news. Checking. Checking. Checking. Always checking. Sometimes consciously, sometimes semi-consciously where I knew what I was doing and didn't want to do it but for some reason I couldn't stop myself. Sometimes, I'd find myself wanting to check my phone, unable to do so, and become a really weird combination of frustrated and anxious. I'm so, so, so much happier now. It's crazy. I'm paying attention to nature again. The lizards and the birds in my backyard. I'm appreciating trees and flowers. When I have free moments, I pull my phone out, check the time, make sure I don't have any texts, and put it back in my pocket. My movie time is uninterrupted. My time with the dog is uninterrupted. I feel so untethered. I went to a wedding recently and I gave my phone to my wife to keep in her purse so I wouldn't have it in my pockets ruining the line of the pants. I didn't once think about it the whole time. If the wedding happened exactly a year ago, I can almost bet I'd be feeling an emotional tug to want to pull it out and check my e-mail, check the news, check Reddit, check Hubski. Phone. Phone. Phone. Craziness. I'm not completely curred though. Sometimes, early in the morning when I wake up and the whole world is still asleep, I seek out Dala's tablet so I can sit on the couch and check the news and Hubski and see what's new. So, I dunno. Maybe even if we don't use everything described in the article as it's described in the article, they got some points.
I think the first time I was introduced to the "attention economy" was back when I read this phenomenal article: I kind of envy you because you're miles ahead of me in this regard. I catch myself wanting to check Facebook multiple times, every day, even though I don't want to spend time on there. I am now logged out most of the time, which is enough of a barrier that I don't spend time on there anymore, but I do catch myself in moments of boredom mindlessly hitting ctrl-t + f + enter like the trained monkey that I apparently am. One change that did have a lot of impact was to permanently have silent mode enabled. My phone shouldn't be dictating my attention, and while I now miss calls every once in a while I now go hours without looking at my phone instead of minutes and love it. If you want to read two really great books with two different approaches to what attention means in our modern age, I can't recommend Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle and Deep Work by Cal Newport enough.
Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene is known for dispensing little odd nuggets during shows. I was going to call it "wisdom," but it's really more like his thoughts on life condensed down into six or so words that make you think. The conclusion might be "that doesn't make sense," or "I don't get it," but I always like it. When I saw them two weeks ago, he said something about smart phones and constantly being connected. His statement was "We got fooled, people." I think he's right. The only social media I use is Instagram. It's nice being away from the chaos of Facebook and Twitter. I'm not ready to give up my smart phone; things like maps are just too useful. But I do like the idea of trying to make myself pay less attention to it.