How can we disconnect from technology without completely disconnecting? The answer may lie in choosing alternative devices that offer limited functionality, like a minimalistic arm instead of a fully-featured phone. Finding a balance between constant connection and complete disconnection is important, and the solution may be a middle way.
When you’re gripped by anxiety, fear, grief or dread, how do you escape? It can happen in the span of a few breaths, according to meditation experts Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. They have helped thousands of people find their way out of a mental loop, by moving deeper into it. It's a journey inward that reveals an important lesson for the architects of the attention economy: you cannot begin to build humane technology for billions of users, until you pay careful attention to the course of your own wayward thoughts.