Tech, nature, kids, wellbeing—welcome to The Interconnect
To begin…a story.
I wrote the Mindful Digital Life blog most Fridays from December, 2016 to June, 2022. Writing the weekly posts became an organizing principle for my days, stretching into months and years. In choosing the name Mindful Digital Life in 2016, I was influenced by Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,
on purpose,
in the present moment,
non-judgmentally.
—Jon Kabat-Zinn
I admired JKZ’s work in general, and in particular, I admired his work in schools. I especially appreciated “non-judgmentally” in his definition because at the time, many parents I interacted with were definitely judgmental—about their kids’ use of the various technologies of the day—gaming, texting, Facebook, to name a few.
With the tech that had become so ubiquitous in our lives, bringing more mindfulness to our engagement was definitely needed. And how we adults modeled engagement with technologies presented a necessity to explore and practice mindfulness more genuinely in the presence of the children, tweens, and teens in our lives…whether it was becoming more conscious about how introducing the new Alexa voice assistant impacted daily life, or how, when, and where we took and shared photographs of our children.
As I write these words in July, 2023, I am aware that those were simpler days, though at the time, they brought challenging new complexities.
When my son-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter took an extended trip in 2021, they offered me the opportunity to use their vintage ’79 Airstream motorhome for a writing retreat. I had started outlining a book in 2019 and was anxious to pick it back up and make headway after life in a pandemic pulled my focus. A kind and generous friend with enough space to park the beast hosted me and provided the magic extension cable for high speed internet.
It wasn’t a full-time writing retreat, but the Airstream served as a container to get some very good work done. I spent 4 days every other week focused on researching, reflecting, and writing, free of the normal day-to-day work and distractions. What a gift.
Looking back, I can see that the writing I did in the shelter of the Airstream and a giant oak, and in the company of crows and squirrels, was also the catalyst for The Interconnect though it would take a few more years to bring it forward.
Fast forward to summer 2022—my daughter and family traveled once again and I returned to the Airstream for long “writing retreat” weekends. In the interim since the extended retreat in 2021, the pandemic had raged on, along with brutal fires in northern California. My book outline and draft shapeshifted, taking into account the multifaceted toll of the pandemic, a rising mental health crisis in young people, more and more alarms of climate emergency from the scientific community, and the rumblings of an AI tsunami heading our way.
And here I am, well past midsummer 2023 on a far less formal “writing retreat” spent spinning up a new homebase on Substack (it definitely has a learning curve), writing my first post for The Interconnect, in the company of a magnolia tree, a tall Blue Spruce, very vocal Steller’s Jays, and evening flocks of tiny chittering bushtits.
Nature is not a place to visit, it is home…
—Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
According to research cited in the REI report The Path Ahead:
“The average American spends 95 percent of their life indoors. As a result, we are becoming an indoor species, which comes with consequences. Our health and well-being may suffer. And the less we value our outdoor spaces, the less likely we are to protect them. It’s a slippery slope.”
What’s your percentage this week? (My thoughts are with those of you who have needed to stay inside due to smoke from wildfires and extreme heat.)
From the MDL archives
Brutal truths & beautiful possibilities - a post on The Path Ahead: the future of life outdoors
Elsewhere on Substack
The AI-Generated Education Issue That No One Detected (Double Pun Intended) by Alberto Romero, The Algorithmic Bridge. An excellent piece on the folly of using AI detectors.
Don’t miss the piece Alberto points you to on Ars Tecnica—Why AI detectors think the US Constitution was written by AI—with comments on the cost of false accusations of students by teachers, by another Substack contributor, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick who writes One Useful Thing.
Thanks for reading. Be well.