Paying Attention Here and Now

I’ve seen disturbing YouTube clips depicting people so engrossed in their iPhones or computers that they entirely miss out on reality, and the tangible moment is lost. While perhaps I’m not as addicted as the young man who goes through his day ignoring the beautiful girl at his side in favor of his phone, I confess to understanding the habit-forming nature of the Internet.

Sadly, the vastness of cyberspace can capture our attention to the point that it seems almost more real (desirable?) than life itself.  The Internet is so compelling, so vibrant and endless in scope, that our ordinary lives may appear cramped and boxy in comparison. 

We can end up alienated from just about everything concrete when glued to a techno-screen: ourselves, each other, nature, the God who is “everywhere present, filling all things.”  Technology breeds a sort of restlessness, a tendency to scan the horizon for whatever is new.  Fidgety uptightness born of constant stimulation keeps us wound tight.

This restless alertness can become a form of brokenness.  Aside from cutting back screen time (the obvious answer), an antidote to the magnetic draw might be to cultivate what ancient Greeks called nepsis, or intentional, vigilant watchfulness.  Nepsis involves quieting and guarding the heart and mind against whatever is extraneous to truly living as God designs - assigning a part of the mind to watch over the rest of the mind, cutting short thoughts that lead to compulsion, addiction, and captivity.  Turning thoughts back to God: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

St. Hesychios the Priest describes what happens when the mind in no longer troubled by “logismos” - temptations, provocations, and distracting images:

A heart that has been completely emptied of mental images gives birth to divine, mysterious intellections that sport like fish and dolphins in a calm sea. The sea is fanned by a soft wind, the heart’s depth by the Holy Spirit.  ‘And you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father”’” (Galatians 4:6).