Brief Summary
This graduation speech encourages graduates to be mindful of their phone usage and its impact on their lives. It highlights that willpower is not enough to combat digital distractions and suggests using "situation modification" to create distance between themselves and their phones. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and research findings to illustrate how excessive phone use can negatively affect focus, mental well-being, and relationships, and provides six practical tips for managing phone usage and reclaiming attention in the digital age.
- Willpower is overrated; situation modification is key to managing phone use.
- Excessive phone use can negatively impact focus, mental well-being, and relationships.
- Intentionally creating space between stimulus and response is crucial for reclaiming attention.
Introduction and Experiment
The speaker begins by playfully asking President Jenkins to hold their phone, and then requests the same from the audience, creating a lighthearted atmosphere. The speaker then initiates an experiment where everyone in the audience hands their phone to a neighbour, emphasising that this is a unique occurrence for a graduation ceremony. This sets the stage for a discussion about the impact of phones on our lives and the importance of managing their presence.
The Consequential Choice of Phone Placement
The speaker asserts that where you choose to keep your phone is a significant decision, as impactful as choosing a major or a first job. This choice is one that you make repeatedly throughout the day. The speaker challenges the common reliance on willpower to resist digital distractions, suggesting that successful people avoid temptations altogether by designing their environment to support better choices.
The Impact of Screen Time
Gen Z spends over six hours a day on their phones, with teenagers averaging around eight hours. This constant engagement invites a flood of notifications and images that hijack attention, causing people to reflexively look away from their surroundings. The speaker contrasts this with high-achievers who create distraction-free environments to focus on their passions, referencing interviews conducted for their book, "Grit".
A Room of One's Own: An Anecdote
The speaker shares a personal story about their mother, an artist who, at 87, secured her own art studio to avoid interruptions and create a dedicated workspace. This illustrates the importance of having a space free from distractions to pursue one's craft. The speaker then describes a portrait their mother painted of them, hunched over and staring at their phone, highlighting how pervasive phone use has become in their life.
Situation Modification: A Smarter Approach
The speaker argues that relying on willpower to limit phone use is ineffective and advocates for "situation modification" instead. This involves using physical distance to create psychological distance from the phone. Conversely, keeping things you want to focus on, like art or books, close by. Research supports this, showing that having a phone in sight lowers IQ test scores, while keeping it out of sight raises them.
The Social Impact of Phones
The increasing use of social media has coincided with a decline in in-person socialisation. The speaker highlights the importance of face-to-face interactions and the irreplaceable elements of in-person communication, such as physical touch and eye contact. They cite a study showing that reducing social media use can increase happiness and decrease anxiety and depression. The speaker also raises concerns about the growing reliance on chatbots for companionship and advice, suggesting they may offer short-term comfort at the expense of long-term social nourishment.
Six Ideas for Situation Modification
The speaker provides six practical tips for using situation modification to manage phone use:
- Put your phone in another room when you need to focus deeply.
- Increase your sky-to-screen ratio by spending more time outdoors.
- Keep phones off the table during meals with loved ones.
- Keep your phone out of reach while driving.
- Don't keep your phone in your bedroom.
- Listen to the Ezra Klein podcast featuring Zadie Smith, who explains why she refuses to get a smartphone.
Intentionality and Reclaiming Attention
Situation modification is about intentionality, creating space between stimulus and response, and reclaiming attention, not complete abstinence. Maintaining friendships requires deliberate effort, which is made harder when the default response to free time is to use your phone. While phones can connect us to distant people, they can also disconnect us from those physically present.
Conclusion
The speaker urges graduates to commit to situation modification as a form of mindfulness in the digital age. They remind the audience that there are trade-offs in every choice and encourage them to remember Annie Dillard's words: "How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives." The speaker concludes by thanking the audience and wishing them well.
