My latest book Life Beyond the Touch Screen is designed to raise awareness around the impact of digital technology in our lives as individuals, in organizations and in society. A much-needed reminder to make a more deliberate choice, now that the world is gradually moving towards a ’New Normal’.
‘Really enjoyed it! Lima has written a beautiful meditation on how we can slow down and get more out of every minute, with or without our devices.’
-Nir Eyal, bestselling author of Hooked and Indistractable.
When did you last check your digital habits, health, and the possibility that you might be hooked? And your loved ones, friends, coworkers? We all read the research, we know what the possible impacts of technology overuse can be. But how consciously and deliberately do we check our own thoughts, feelings and behaviors related to it?
During the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent lockdown, technology has helped us stay connected, and made it possible for many of us to continue to do our work. Smartphones and social media have been at the center of racial unrest in the US and worldwide in the past few weeks.
Smart, digital technology is more than likely going to help us restore and hopefully improve our work life, the global economy, and social justice over the upcoming months or years.
Technology makes our lives better and easier in more ways than we could count. But there’s also a downside to digital technology, and that downside lies in the adverse effects it can have on our mental health.
Digital technology has been reported in numerous studies to be connected to decreased focus, productivity and wellbeing — being linked to feelings of depression, loneliness, and to the occurrence of burnouts.
The technology has also been linked to unethical persuasion in the realms of business and politics, and the connection to the propagation of Fake News is blatantly obvious.
The technology in and of itself is neutral. The problem is choice: How do we choose to have our new and rapidly evolving tools and capabilities impact our lives as individuals, organizations and as a global society?
To make a balanced, positive and informed choice about something, we need to increase our knowledge and our awareness about that subject. With my new book Life Beyond the Touch Screen, that is exactly what I am aiming to help you do.
For the past six years I’ve simultaneously been working as a content marketer and later innovation philosopher in one of the most innovative IT companies in the Netherlands, seeing up close what technology can do — and as a father feeling the effects that digital technology can have on our personal lives and mental wellbeing firsthand.
It was a series of interviews with about 20 visionaries in the realm of innovation, coupled with a personal experience with burn-out, that led me to be inspired to write this book.
Life Beyond the Touch Screen is meant mainly for people working or interested in the world of Information Technology, but just as relevant for people working in or with a personal interest for marketing/communications, personal development, or personal leadership. Especially today.
How conscious are you of your digital habits? Are you making the deliberate choices to use smart technology to the maximum benefit for your life and the people around you? Or do you find yourself distracted, mindlessly scrolling, and having difficulties balancing work and personal life?
Assess your own digital habits and improve your awareness around the impact of digital technologies on our lives, to be able to make a more conscious, balanced, and productive choice. Find out more and order your copy of Life Beyond the Touch Screen at www.lifebeyond.one.
Previously published at https://lifebeyond.one/blogs/tech-impact/new-book-for-self-assessing-your-digital-habits