More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Nir Eyal
Read between
September 17 - December 3, 2019
The second factor that correlates with workplace depression is an environment with an “effort-reward imbalance,” in which workers don’t see much return for their hard work, be it through increased pay or recognition.
While technology perpetuates a vicious “cycle of responsiveness,” its cause is a dysfunctional culture. (Source: Inspired by Leslie Perlow book, Sleeping With Your Cell Phone)
Tech overuse at work is a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture.
In her TEDx talk, Edmondson defines psychological safety as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”
It’s in the learning zone that teams perform at their best and it’s where they can air concerns without fear of being attacked or fired.
Don’t suffer in silence. A workplace where people can’t talk about technology overuse is also one where people keep other important issues (and insights) to themselves.
“You need to have uninterrupted work time . . . This is why—whether I’m dealing with Slack or email—I always block off time to go in and check messages and then return to uninterrupted work.”
Tech isn’t evil. Used in the right way and in the right amounts, kids’ tech use can be beneficial, while too much (or too little) can have slightly harmful effects.
Teach kids to be indistractable. Teaching children how to manage distraction will benefit them throughout their lives.
Most formal schooling in America and similar industrialized countries, on the other hand, is the antithesis of a place where kids have the autonomy to make their own choices.
“We’re doing a lot of controlling them in their school environments and it’s no surprise that they should then want to turn to an environment where they can feel a lot of agency and a lot of autonomy in what they’re doing,”
Companies making games, apps, and other potential distractions are happy to fill that void by selling ready-made solutions for the “psychological nutrients” kids lack.
Spending time with peers has always been a formative part of growing up. For kids, much of the opportunity to develop social skills centers around chances to play with others.
In today’s world, however, teens increasingly experience social interactions in virtual environments because doing so in the real world is inconvenient or off limits.
The more you talk with your kids about the costs of too much tech use and the more you make decisions with them, as opposed to for them, the more willing they will be to listen to your guidance.
Our kids need psychological nutrients. According to a widely accepted theory of human motivation, all people need three things to thrive: a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Distractions satisfy deficiencies. When our kids’ psychological needs are not met in the real world, they go looking for satisfaction—often in virtual environments.
Without a clear plan, many kids are left to make impulsive decisions that often involve digital distraction.
The goal here is to teach them to spend their time mindfully by reserving a place for important activities on their weekly schedules.
Empowering children with the autonomy to control their own time is a tremendous gift. Even if they fail from time to time, failure is part of the learning process.
Hence, it’s better to set aside an evening, even if only once a week, for a device-free family meal.
Just as with our own timeboxed schedules, kids can learn how to make time for what’s important to them. If they don’t learn to make their own plans in advance, kids will turn to distractions.
It’s OK to let your kids fail. Failure is how we learn. Show kids how to adjust their schedules to make time to live up to their values.
As parents, we often forget that a kid wanting something “really, really badly” is not a good enough reason.
Test for tech readiness. A good measure of a child’s readiness is the ability to manage distraction by using the settings on the device to turn off external triggers.
Consumer skepticism is healthy. Understanding that companies are motivated to keep kids spending time watching or playing is an important part of teaching media literacy.
Phubbing, a portmanteau of phone and snubbing, means “to ignore (a person or one’s surroundings) when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device.”
Distraction in social situations can keep us from being fully present with important people in our lives. Interruptions degrade our ability to form close social bonds.
Develop new social norms. We can tackle distraction among friends the same way we beat social smoking, by making it unacceptable to use devices in social situations. Prepare a few tactful phrases—like asking, “Is everything OK?”—to discourage phone usage among friends.
Page 19 “I’m coming clean today, telling this story . . .” Zoë Chance, “How to Make a Behavior Addictive,” TEDx talk at TEDxMillRiver, May 14, 2013, 16:57, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHfiKav9fcQ.
Page 132 “Specifically, I like the free browser extension called DF Tube . . .” https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distraction-free/mjdepdfccjgcndkmemponafgioodelna?hl=en.
Page 174 “The search giant announced the results of a two-year study . . .” Julia Rozovsky, “The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team,” Re:Work (blog), November 17, 2015, https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/.
Page 174 “In her TEDx talk, Edmondson defines psychological safety . . .” Amy Edmondson, “Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace,” TEDx talk at TEDxHGSE, May 4, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=231&v=LhoLuui9gX8
