Tech is changing our聽brain chemistry and it鈥檚 vital that we put some boundaries back in place says Consciously Digital founder Anastasia Dedyukhina.
Dedyukhina, who used to work in tech marketing, started the consultancy to help people and organisations have a healthier relationship with technology.
She has now ditched her smartphone and this April she launched Focus Inside, the first聽mindful tech art and digital detox festival.
Dedyukhina says that tech is rewiring our dopamine reward system 鈥� quite literally changing our brains.
鈥淔or any kind of action that we perform the brain either rewards us or tells us it鈥檚 bad,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淲hen you use devices a lot and, for example, get notifications, that鈥檚 how we get a tiny dopamine boost.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why when we get used to that we feel excited but also want to go and check again and again.鈥�
In nature we鈥檝e never had so much dopamine and stimulation before says Dedyukhina, which means most of the signals we鈥檙e receiving today are meaningless.
鈥淭his means that because we鈥檙e used to constant stimulation it鈥檚 really difficult to leave our phone aside and concentrate on something,鈥� she said.
Tech is also having a lasting effect on our memory, she believes, and that can become a bigger problem for the way we learn.
鈥淲e tend to outsource memory more and more to tech,鈥� she said.
鈥淚f I can鈥檛 remember the name of an actor I Google it 鈥� we鈥檙e not trying to remember.
鈥淪ome people argue this can free up humans to be creative but the human memory is not just storage space 鈥� it鈥檚 connected to how we learn, how we create, how we imagine and how we can stay concentrated.鈥�
One of the reasons we have memory is to be able to plan for the future so we don鈥檛 make mistakes, says Dedyukhina, and this is in serious danger of being lost.
鈥淲e use memory because it helps create context and we learn from context,鈥� she said.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 learn by reading something, you take the fact and then the long term memory arranges it according to the context you have.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e learning the word 鈥榞reen鈥� it will be arranged according to things like colours, plants and cucumbers.
鈥淭hen the more context you have the more neurons you can link to it, in order to better remember it.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 use your memory to memorise things you don鈥檛 create context. When we know we鈥檙e more likely to find something online we actually don鈥檛 remember it.鈥�
The effects of technology can鈥檛 be neutralised completely as it鈥檚 impractical to digital detox in the world we live in says Dedyukhina. However she does suggest there are a few things we can do.
鈥淭he main thing is to recreate the boundaries tech has removed,鈥� she said.
鈥淭his means there should always be space and time when you鈥檙e using tech and where you鈥檙e not and that you decide for yourself.
鈥淭ry to minimise as much as possible what tech鈥檚 telling you to do and to take as much control as you can over it.
鈥淒on鈥檛 have too many notifications, and if you鈥檙e opening email try a locking function so you don鈥檛 see things being added up. And always try put your device somewhere you can鈥檛 see it.鈥�