Live Deeply Versus Digital Connectivity. Please, Don’t Make Me Choose.

My brain is addled.  I’m starting to look at my Blackberry and ask, “Do I really need to take you with me?”  Jeez, Barbara, what if someone tries to get in touch with you while you’re in the cereal aisle at Publix at 10pm or you miss a Tweet telling you that someone you haven’t seen in two years is in a taxi on the way to Laguardia.

All this addling is the result of my giving attention to Harvard educated William Powers, who is definitely not against technology but is making excellent observations in his thought-provoking and well-reached book, Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy to the Good Life in the Digital Age.

Regarding connectivity, he writes: “The goal is no longer to be ‘in touch’ but to erase the possibility of ever being out of touch.  We want to merge, live simultaneously with everyone, and share every moment, every perception, thought and action via our screens.”

Right on, Bill.  Honk, if you aren’t texting.

But what Mr. Powers really wants to explore is less about your daily life.  How are we all doing with living deeply?

When it comes to creating a happy, fulfilling interior life that makes you want to stand up and applaud, one factor matters more than any other: depth.  And by that Powers means the quality of awareness, feeling or understand that comes when we truly engage with some aspect of our life experience.

Not sure you know how to live deeply? Philosophers down through the ages have all reached the same conclusion:  every life has the potential to be lived deeply.

But here’s the crux of the problem, according to Powers.  Digital busyness is the death of living deeply.

Technology impacts the very essence of our lives.

How connected should we be?

How much should it mean to you?

What are your views on “connectedness”?

Do we really want a world in which everyone is staring at a screen all the time, keeping one another busy?

Why are we doing this to ourselves?

At the core of a sabbatical experience is a chance to take a break from your current reality – your job, career, life as you know it.  But sometimes, the greatest positive impact for those on sabbatical is the chance to live without technology.

While you don’t have to choose between living deeply and digital connectivity, you might want to make better choices about how you choose to live your life in the broadest sense.

In other words, state your “connectedness philosophy.”  Tweet that.