Nurturing Human Intelligence: An Analog Ritual to Get Offline

Before artificial intelligence (AI) came pummeling into our world, smartphone users were already spending the equivalent of 61 to 80 days per year on our devices. We do not have to look much further than the palm of our hands to witness the ways in which modern technology has, with all its incredible benefits, intimately infiltrated our psyches and souls.

The Center for Humane Technology identifies the five broad pillars of humanity that are being impacted by modern technology and AI. They are:

Our human relationships
Our cognitive capacities
Our inner worlds
Our identities
Our work and contributions

As a psychotherapist and yoga and meditation teacher, I research how technology impacts human relationships, specifically through the lens of attachment theory, as well as how digitization impacts our inner worlds. At this important moment in human history, we have never before been faced with a technology that can do our thinking for us, simulates experiences of "relationship," and threatens to erode the power of human relationships, creativity, and work.

Nurturing and protecting human intelligence—including our relationships and inner worlds—is foundational for the human spirit, and the great soul task of our time.

What Is Human Intelligence?

With so much focus on AI, it is important to remember the sheer power of what makes us human. We did not get this far as a species on a whim. Blood, sweat, and tears got us here, and our story is not over.

For nearly 200,000 years, the human brain developed to crave three subtle, yet essential technologies of being human: a) tone of voice, b) facial expression, and c) body language. We are a highly social species, and over time, we became adept at reading the intricate language of human voice, face, and body, all of which are often diminished by smartphone communication, when having important conversations over text message or interacting with AI in place of other human beings.

When we outsource our relationships to apps, the quality of these connections is diminished, and we are left with an incomplete feeling of emptiness. We lose the richness of embodied and synchronous connection with another person, and we unknowingly lose human intelligence to the machinery of modernity. Our wise and intelligent human nervous systems crave more from each other and our connections. The good news is: you cannot undo 200,000 years of evolution in just 20 years of hyper-digitization. However, we are all tasked with protecting and preserving our humanity during this pivotal time.

The Attachment Machine

Attachment theory is the biological, social, and evolutionary impulse of the human being, starting in infancy, to attach to our primary caregiver in order to ensure safety and survival.

As humans, we can experience secure attachment through feeling seen, soothed, and safe in key relationships, in both childhood and adulthood. Psychological research conducted over the last several years shows that smartphone use impacts our attachment relationships, and vice versa.

A recent meta-analysis study of over 11,000 cases showed that individuals with insecure attachment styles (anxious, avoidant, or disorganized), are more likely to develop a compulsive, problematic relationship with their smartphone, acting as a "surrogate" attachment figure. This coping strategy attempts replace the vulnerability and hardships of real relationships with a digital pacifier. Through smartphone attachment, we are habituating the embodied action of reaching for our phone more frequently than we reach for others, or reach in to ourselves for answers within.

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A Sanctuary Space to Nurture Your Soul

Sanctuary spaces are ones that increase friction between you and the digital world (i.e., turning the phone off and putting it away in another room) and decrease friction between you and the natural world.

Through unstructured time and high-quality leisure, the soul can develop a relationship to its interiority, in which we can regain access to our rich inner worlds. When I ask AI for a "quick answer" to a problem, I often wonder, "What happens to wondering?"

What happens to looking for wisdom within?

Human innovation emerges from spaciousness. It's from this empty space that something clear and fresh can emerge. Now more than ever, we need enriching "blank canvas practices" to restore our psyches from the inundation of digital modernity:

A long walk without the phone
A morning mindfulness practice
An artistic/creative project
An long afternoon with spaciousness and boredom
A hot date with a good novel
Analog Evening Ritual

Here's something we can all do tonight to practice rehumanization through an analog evening ritual. Scrolling before bed is so tempting, but it can often be a form of self-neglect and self-abandonment rooted in our relational attachment wounds. We scroll and peer into other people's lives rather than being with our own life, breath, body, and the present moment.

Here's a simple, yet profound practice of creating a sense of secure attachment within yourself:

Set a time. Tonight or one night over the next week, spend the last 3-4 hours of your evening with yourself, free of screens and scrolling (if you normally go to bed around 10:30pm, phone off by 6:30-7:30pm).
Communicate. Inform anyone who needs to know you are logging off. Then, turn off your phone and put away your devices. Consider unplugging your WiFi for the night. Set an analog alarm if you need to wake up by a certain time.
Set the mood. Turn down the lights in the rooms of your house. Dim the lights or use a red light reading lamp. Light a candle, and make a cup of tea. Create a relaxing setting for your whole nervous system know it is time to rest.
Attune to your body. Place a hand somewhere on your body (heart or belly) and take 3-5 deep breaths to drop into your experience. Internalization helps us to remember to value our own experience of self-regulation rather than reaching outside of ourselves for validation.
Journal. Spend about 20-30 minutes writing in your journal as an act of seeing and witnessing yourself. What does it feel like for you to be unplugged?
Wonder. Notice where your imagination goes. It's healthy to feel bored. Notice your experience in your body without the phone at your fingertrips.
Read. Read ten or more pages of a novel. If your mind feels hyper-active, keep reading until you feel genuinely tired and ready for sleep.

The internet was initially intended to be a tool to support human intelligence, and not the other way around. When we reclaim our embodied agency, we can be the authors of the human story once again—one that is evolving before our very eyes. Remember: you can make small choices everyday to be in right relationship with technology and your soul. The choice begins right now.