Head down we cross streets. Head down we walk down hallways. Head down we drive our cars. Our hyperconnected world has such a grasp of our attention that we barely pay attention to anything but what's reaching us via smartphone.
That head down approach to life leaves us to only imagine what we've been missing. We miss the neighbor who's standing one line over in the supermarket check out line. We miss the cute child trying to grab our attention with a silly face. We miss the beauty of a graden of roses as we shuffle past checking our e-mail, tweet or Facebook post.
We become attached to the Wi-fi, 4G world that serves us from the palm of our hand. We look to engage in the experiences of others as they post bigger than life highlights of their everyday world. Yet, what do we have to share back if our head is always down.
We don't often consider all that we are missing because we've been told multi-tasking, avoiding sleep and staying connected makes us more powerful, more elite. But, the concept of multi-tasking may truly be a fallacy.
The National Safety Council issued a white paper on distracted driving a year ago. Extensive research that preceded the paper's release concluded there is no such thing as multi-tasking.
"Multitasking is a myth. Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time," experts wrote in the paper,"Instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and another. Brains can juggle tasks very rapidly, which leads us to erroneously believe we are doing two tasks at the same time. In reality, the brain is switching attention between tasks – performing only one task at a time."
You can quickly see how that limits of our magnificent brains would prohibit us from driving safely, but the head down approach also raises the risk of life swimming by with barely a notice.
Perhaps the best way to return to observing and participating in the worl around us is by sending yourself a daily e-mail, text, Tweet or FB message as a reminder to live life with your head up.
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The opinions expressed in this blog are the sole responsibility of the author and are not reflective of the views or opinions of Barrington Broadcasting, WSTM-NBC3, its management or employees
