Journal Prompts for Your Relationship with Tech

As summer unfolds in waves of heat and humidity that make it feel like we are swimming through the air, the temptation to sit inside in the shaded, bug free, air-conditioned comfort of my home has been a temptation that has been somewhat vexing. I feel as if I spend so much of my year looking forward to Ontario summers; the verdant greens, the sparkling lakes, the fresh produce, and the sunny days are such a delight. Yet the realities of sunscreen, overheating and mosquitos can make it all feel rather inconvenient and exhausting, leading to more time than I'd like to admit spent inside looking out a window, or worse, inside looking at a screen.

I have observed an increasing shift online, particularly in the last year or two, towards tech exhaustion and frustration. More and more posts about how to develop "offline" hobbies, products to help you shrink your screen time, and an overarching sense of awareness of what our tech dependency seems to be costing us in terms of true connection. Something I find interesting as a therapist and individual who is continually navigating my own relationship with tech, is how often we move towards substitution or ripping tech away, without reflecting upon why we are using it so frequently. Whether we like it, agree with it, or want to continue it, there is a function this tech is fulfilling for us, be it emotional, technical (lol), functional, etc. Until we understand its function, any attempt to pry it out of our grasp will be difficult to sustain, as we have taken away something that is serving a purpose, without finding other ways to get that need met. Often, tech is used as a coping mechanism, and with coping mechanisms it can be helpful to approach them with curiousity and compassion. This allows us to bring in supports that meet the need the coping mechanism is addressing in ways that align with our values, which can allow us more capacity to choose a change that feels more sustainable. Subsequently, when we set boundaries with ourselves it can feel loving and achievable, as we know we have other ways to get that need met.

So, with that said, the purpose of these journal prompts is to help you go inwards, so that you can explore your "why" with curiousity and compassion. From there, they guide you into assessing the function that tech is serving in your life, and considering how else those needs could be met. I encourage you to sit with these insights, instead of rushing into action; sustainable change is often won slowly, in smaller steps than we may like that we practice again and again until they feel easy. Consider how you can add additional supports or options to meet the needs/function that tech is fulfilling in your life, and practice that. Perhaps you also feel ready to set a boundary with your technology, and have felt ready to do so for a while; I encourage you to lean into your intuition and remind you that you are the expert in your experience.

Wishing you a summer full of juicy Ontario peaches, buggy humid days spent outside, and sunshine.

Katelyn

Journal Prompts:

1. What does a healthy relationship with technology look like to me?

2. What does an unhealthy releationship with technology look like to me?

3. Can someone be "addicted" to technology? If so, what would that look like? If not, why not? If I was addicted to technology, what would that mean to me?

4. If I had a tech addiction (or an unhealthy relationship with tech), what would that mean to me? What is the cost?

5. What purpose is tech currently serving in my life? What needs is it meeting, what function is it serving?

6. When possible and realistic, how else could I support these needs?

7. How am I willing to change?

8. If I had to maintain this change for 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years, would it feel doable? If not, how can I moderate my expectations of myself or set myself up for success in a way that feels more realistic and self-compassionate? Do I feel like I have time to work on my relationship with tech? Why or why not?

Questions? Comments? Please send me an email at lorecounselling@outlook.com

P.S. if you'd like some further reading on our relationship with tech, this article from The New York Times is a favourite of mine