Spiritual Degradation and Elevation
How our relationship to technology affects our souls
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind — without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos. ”
— William James
I just finished Johnathan Haidt’s most recent book, The Anxious Generation. It is an excellent compilation of all the research done on the effects of technology on Gen Z, specifically. Haidt picks up where Jean Twenge left off with her 2019 book iGen, which has proven her to be one of the great prognosticators of our generation.
Much of the territory covered in the book's early chapters is also captured in Twenge’s most recent contribution to the literature, Generations, which came out last summer (highly recommend).
Where Haidt shines, and what sets him apart from the data-driven approach Twenge takes in iGen and Generations, is his lens as a moral psychologist. Haidt’s ability to bring a philosophical flair offers readers a framework for communicating what often feels like it eludes language.
One chapter in particular — Chapter 8: Spiritual Degradation and Elevation — has this effect. In it, Haidt (an atheist) ponders, within the context of the world’s great philosophical wisdom traditions: What are smartphones and social media doing to us spiritually?
“There is a God-shaped hole in every human heart,” wrote Blaise Pascal in 1662. As atheists or theists, we can debate the nature of this hole and why it is there, but we can agree that there is a space inside all of us that is ripe to be filled.
Haidt writes,
There is a hole, an emptiness in us all, that we strive to fill. If it doesn’t get filled with something noble and elevated, modern society will quickly pump it full of garbage. That has been true since the beginning of the age of mass media, but the garbage pump got 100 times more powerful in the 2010s.
It matters what we expose ourselves to. On this, the ancients universally agree. Here is Buddha: ‘We are what we think. All that we are arises with out thoughts.’ And here is Marcus Aurelius: ‘The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.’
In a phone-based life, we are exposed to an extraordinary amount of content, much of it chosen by algorithms and pushed to us via notifications that interrupt whatever we were doing. It’s too much, and a lot of it pulls us downward on the divitiy dimension, we need to take back control of our inputs. We need to take back control of our lives.
Haidt outlines 6 spiritual practices that the phone-based life blocks:
Shared Sacredness
Embodiment
Stillness, Silence, and Focus
Transcending the Self
Be Slow to Anger, Quick to Forgive
Find Awe in Nature
These spiritual practices are the keys to a life well lived. I will explore each of these spiritual practices in later pieces, but for today, I will focus on “transcending the self.”
The Ego and the Elevated
As human beings, we spend most of our time in our “ego mode” — considering our physical needs and social status. This is the time we spend thinking about “I or me.” This is normal, natural, and essential to our survival. However, there is a hollowness when we spend all our time here. If we spend all of our time and attention in “ego-mode” that “God-shaped hole” is never filled with the aspects of life that bring us satisfaction, contentment, and flourishing. Smartphones and social media keep us locked in “ego mode.”
We all have moments when we are "bumped out” of this mode and experience something that elevates or transcends the ego. These are also the times we tend to experience the most satisfaction.
Most of these periods happen in communion with others. When most of us think about the best moments of our lives, these are often the moments we spend being with and truly attending to one another.
When transcendent moments occur individually, they are almost always times of deep concentration — or flow states. The flow experience in everyday life is an important component of creativity and well-being. It can be described as a key aspect of eudaimonia, or self-actualization, in an individual.
The great robber of flow? Distraction — and fragmentation of thinking. Exactly what our smartphones steal from us with their incessant pinging and notifying. Calling us to give more of our precious life over to it.
The Anxious Generation
On this episode of the pod, Kelley and I explore The Anxious Generation and the spiritual implications of a phone-based life and culture.
Witches (aka Women Who Heal)
The term “witch” has deep historical connotations. In most cases, the term was used to vilify a woman who had some gift or talent for healing others. As humanity evolved, the term was further weaponized in ways that hurt and killed women.
In this three (or more) part series, Erin and Kelley CELEBRATE three separate women who are all healers in one way or another. This series has been one of our most popular to date, and these episodes are well worth a listen:
Recommendations
What I am Reading:
(Re-reading) Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (even better the second time)
The Essentials of Organizational Behavior by Terri Scandura
What I am listening to:
All things Zach Bryan and ODESZA
What I am watching:
Couples Therapy featuring Dr. Orna Guralnik
