I’ve watched in meetings as people’s eyes jumped to the corner of their laptop screens after hearing a faint notification bell.
I’ve witnessed a gift officer turn her phone upside down on the table as the screen lit up only to have the buzz of vibrating notifications continue to capture the attention of everyone present.
I’ve seen a donor pause midsentence when sitting across from a gift officer at lunch as she noticed the face of the gift officer’s smart watch brightly come to life.
Our world breathlessly preaches that technology will aid our productivity, enhance our quality of life, and, generally, make things easier.
And while we do talk about the costs of tech, we do so mostly in the context of children’s overdependence on “screen time.” Or, even our own binges on social media.
But we rarely talk about how we are paying the costs related to technology.
User-driven technology ultimately demands that we pay for it with something very specific and very valuable in both our personal lives and our professional lives – our attention. And, while each of those small notifications that light up, buzz, and ding, in and of themselves don’t come with a high price tag, taken together, the cost and our payment becomes significant.
Once we realize that we pay for all of these small notifications with our very mindfulness and consciousness, we can begin to realize the true cost.
Post Scriptum: If we think we can multitask our way through pinging screens, flashing watches, and buzzing phones, we only need to ask the person sitting across from us how present we really seem.
