“Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a Cat, uptails all, and a Louse for the Hangman” – Cob, a character in playwright Ben Johnson’s 1598, Every Man in His Humour (Later, “Curiosity killed the cat.”)
Brain researchers have determined that the fall-out from distracted minds is worse than we might think, involving more than just missing out on St. Thomas Cathedral or random birdsong, even without considering the spiritual consequences. In his book The Shallows—What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, author Nicholas Carr argues that the frenetic pace and constant interruption of the Internet and digital technology rob us of attentive reflection and analytical thinking—both of which are necessary for consolidating short-term “working” memory into our brain’s long-term counterpart.
If sound-bite media and flashy audiovisual Internet elements promote brevity and entertainment, might the ubiquity of electronic devices, with their attendant interruptions, be conditioning the brains of digital technology users to crave the sugar buzz of novelty and insipid distractions rather than a healthy diet of thoughtful rumination and focused, contemplative musing? Is it possible that reliance on the Internet as a source of information is rewiring technophilic brains so as to erode their ability to meaningfully analyze that information? (Blogger Kevin Trovini on Carr’s contention)
Other studies have found that social media in particular is rewiring our brains:
- We are becoming dumber than pot smokers (email interruptions dropped IQs)
- We get bored more easily (users craved the dopamine squirts from emails, texts, and social media updates)
- We are less able to focus or handle stress (fractured thinking and lack of focus persisted even after multitasking ended)
- We are less satisfied (online connections provided ample dopamine hits but none of the calming oxytocin or serotonin typically produced in interactions with real people)
That distraction causes lower IQs, more boredom, less focus, and less satisfaction is certainly unfortunate, but its spiritual consequences, particularly for latter-day Israel, may be more tragic. The very thing distraction precludes (“thoughtful rumination and focused, contemplative musing”) is the very thing necessary for personal revelation, as the Prophet Joseph taught, “The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out” (HC 3:295).
Additionally, overwhelmed by lives full of distractions, we are too busy to magnify our callings, home or visit teach, hold family home evening, keep the Sabbath Day holy, share the gospel, do temple and family history work, or just serve our neighbor. And even when we do engage in such things, our minds and hearts are elsewhere. We find it easy and even exciting to attend a popular movie, but we have to force ourselves to the House of the Lord, if we get there at all.
We say prayers, but we hardly pray, and we speak uncomfortably of Enos’ prayer as either hyperbole or anomaly—no one can really pray for that long, right? We can barely focus for the 10-minute ordinance of sacrament, let alone the 2-hour endowment, and less still for a full day of prayer!
The notion that we don’t study the scriptures as we ought has become almost axiomatic, to the point that the latter-day saint who actually reads and studies daily, deeply, and excitedly, if he admits it, strikes others as self-righteous and even offensive! But what is actually offensive is the tendency to lower our standards so we feel okay about the distractions that make scripture study so difficult. Coddling admonitions such as, “Oh, just read one verse per day!” fit squarely into this category.
Perhaps the greatest spiritual tragedy that results from distraction is that we fail to detect the whisperings of the Spirit, and when we miss such messages from heaven, we miss out on doing the Father’s work and fulfilling our life’s mission. What would have happened had Joseph of Egypt been distracted by lust, Mormon by futility, or Joseph Smith by ridicule? How would the course of history have changed? What if the Savior had been distracted from His mission to atone for mankind?
Are we being distracted from our own preordained purposes?
Consider what you might be missing out on while reading Oliver Cowdery’s account of John the Baptist’s visit to him and the prophet Joseph in the quiet grove along the banks of the Susquehanna River:
“On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the veil was parted and the angel of God came down clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the Gospel of repentance. What joy! What wonder! What amazement! While the world was racked and distracted—while millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our ears heard, as in the ‘blaze of day…’; yes, more—above the glitter of the May sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, ‘I am thy fellow-servant,’ dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we admired! ’Twas the voice of an angel from glory, ’twas a message from the Most High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon our souls, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty! (JS-H)
Is there a way to escape our dominantly distracted culture so that we can experience similar, divine manifestations? How do we tune out the static of a frenzied world and instead tune in to the Spirit of God? Is it really possible to access heaven’s wonders so as to pass our our mortal experience in regular, revelatory abundance?
See: Distraction’s Foil
Holy Envy 