Jun 26th, 2021 - Category: Apple
Recently, as part of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, an unusual short session was presented late on Thursday afternoon: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. It was sandwiched between technical sessions with titles like “Use Async/Await With URLSession” and “Explore WKWebView Additions.” It seemed so out of place that I began to ask myself why Apple would spend valuable developer time and money to create a half hour video on a topic so removed from its packed, highly technical agenda.
As with many Apple videos and ads, it sets the stage dramatically with Dan Harris, an Emmy winning anchorman for ABC News, telling his amazing story about having a panic attack on national TV. Dan soon introduces Jeff Warren, a renowned meditation teacher, to talk about the main points of the presentation: calm, focus, and mindfulness. After watching the entire video, I came to the conclusion that Apple’s motivation might have had to do with a comment made around the 11 minute mark related to the global covid lockdowns, “We have just run a global, unregulated experiment on what happens when you deny social connection and the results are really clear: massive spikes in anxiety, depression, addiction, and suicide.”
Does Apple feels like a lack of social connection is an important mental health issue that developers and heavy users of technology need to be aware of? This would make sense because this is not the first time Apple has ventured into this area with apps like Breathe, ScreenTime, and the Apple Watch fitness goals all pointing to Apple promoting a more holistic approach to life that balances technology with being human.
Also, this video seems to be part of a larger effort by Apple not only to encourage people to focus inward, but also to be able to connect more easily across the geographical, social, and cultural barriers that modern life presents. New features coming this fall to MacOS and iOS will make it easier to be with family and friends virtually while watching videos and listening to music via SharePlay and being more present in the moment with the “Focus” features that reduce distractions.
While the middle part of the video includes an interesting guided meditation that starts at the 17 minute mark, it is in the last three minutes when the really big questions are asked: “How do we manage what for many of us is a fraught relationship to technology? What do you do to make sure that you’re using technology as a tool and not having it the other way around where the technology is owning you?”
You’ll have to watch the video (hint: the 26:46 mark) to get at least some basic answers, but clearly what’s really important is the process. The challenging impacts of technology on human life and culture have been known for decades. As John Gardner says in his 1963 book Self-Renewal, “Modern technology need not destroy aesthetic, spiritual and social values, but it will most certainly do so unless the individuals who manage our technology are firmly committed to the preservation of such values.” It’s interesting to observe at least one major corporation is making an effort to preserve these values, unlike others who have opted to make money from that “fraught relationship” by manipulating their users into compulsive usage of their online services.
If you would like to know more about Dan and Jeff’s work, take a look at their short but impactful book “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-to Book.” As Dan says, “I think happiness is such a commonly misunderstood concept, what the science around meditation is showing us… is that happiness is a skill, that the mind is trainable. That all the things we want can really be boiled down to mind states. We may think we want professional success, romantic success, to get that new car, to go on that big vacation, which is fine to have as goals, but what we really want are the mental states that accompany those goals and as it turns out, all these mental states: calm, happiness, connection, compassion, love, these are trainable skills and meditation is one modality through which you can do it.”
Maybe someday sessions like this will be on Monday morning instead of buried on a Thursday afternoon?