In the New York Times article, “Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Much Needed Downtime” the author, Matt Richtel, makes the claim that our need to incorporate technology into every second of our lives is forcing our brains to work overtime, which affects our ability to learn, remember information, and come up with innovative ideas. We think that we are being productive or refreshing our minds by “taking breaks” and playing around on our phones but these periods are not actually restful. When we could be taking an hour-long lunch break, we are now taking “micro-moments,” which we fill with sending emails and playing games. At some level we understand that we need to take breaks, we just need to learn to take meaningful ones. 

Throughout the article the author uses a recurring image of a gym full of people all plugged into to something. I know that I run faster and track my pace better without my phone but I often find myself running with it anyway. I wonder what would happen if I had an emergency and needed to call for help or what important call I might miss if I am away from my phone for an hour. If I am being honest with myself, I should realize that of the times I have run with my phone I have never once needed it to call for help nor have I missed a call from the President. The problem with “I should” is that it rarely translates into “I will” unless we take the time to really invest in understanding and subsequently addressing the problem. I know I should stop writing essays sitting on my bed because studies show it creates a bad sleep environment and yet here I am, writing in my bedroom. Breaking bad habits is hard especially because it means admitting that the bad habit exists. I had time to watch two episodes of Criminal Minds tonight, which means I have time to work on translating “I should” to “I will.” It is only a matter of making overcoming this addiction a priority.