Thanks to the Internet and real-time communication, we live in an “urgency culture”. Everything has priority 1, everything has to happen immediately. What does that do to us and our health? And how do we get out of this?
I look at my phone and immediately see four notifications flashing. No matter how hard I try to continue working in peace, I simply cannot concentrate until I have processed all the push notifications. After all, I could miss something. I admire people who can simply put their smartphone down even though small red numbers are flashing on the home screen of various apps – I can’t do that. My desire for order and to have everything done forces me to open the app so that the notification disappears – even if the message itself is not relevant.
Urgency Culture: The next dopamine hit is just a click away
I’m not alone with this feeling. In times when the Internet and all its possibilities are just a click away on their smartphone, many people, especially younger people – i.e. those who can hardly remember offline times – have problems with it, quite consciously to stay away from it. The hands often naturally wander to the cell phone, always looking for the next dopamine hit – “Oh, a message!”. But this small feeling of happiness can quickly turn into a feeling of pressure, of not being able to switch off until we have seen or read what someone has written to us or what great deal is waiting for us in the shopping app.
The situation is similar when it comes to answering messages: most of us are finding it increasingly difficult to be patient. “With WhatsApp there are two ticks on the message, so the person has read it – why doesn’t he reply immediately?” Precisely because we can (depending on the settings in the app) see when someone was last online and whether and when our message was read, we expect, yes: demand, an immediate response. In the old days of text messages or even calls, we couldn’t track whether someone had already seen our contact. So we just waited until we heard back from our girlfriend or partner.
This tendency towards impatience can also be observed at work. While a few years ago most concerns were resolved via email, today many companies communicate via chat, i.e. in real time, using tools such as Teams or Slack. Here, too, we can usually check whether the other person has read our message. Accordingly, we want to have an answer immediately. It is urgent after all!
Both examples are symptoms of the so-called urgency culture. Everything has to happen immediately; due to the constant availability of practically everything, we have forgotten how to wait for something.
Multitasking makes us less productive – but we still can’t help it
Our society gives us the feeling that we have to be constantly available, constantly “on” – both professionally and privately. This ensures a strong increase in alertness. This hypervigilance, or over-vigilance, makes us significantly more stressed and anxious, clinical psychologist Joel Frank told National Geographic. “Anxiety, in turn, promotes a sense of urgency, which creates a vicious cycle.”
Another problem with constant availability and being constantly online: the human brain is absolutely not designed for multitasking. Have a conversation, read an email and eat something at the same time? Difficult. In addition, constant multitasking also means that we can hardly concentrate on one thing: “The urge for distraction, which is usually responsible for multitasking, is difficult to switch off again,” explains neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius to “National Geographic”. “The result can be that we find it difficult to concentrate, even when we’re not multitasking.”
The constant overstimulation that comes with urgency culture also causes a desensitization of the dopamine system. At some point, just opening a notification may no longer be enough; we then need more. This could make it more difficult to feel moments of joy, says Fabritius.
And we may end up having a harder time concentrating. Because if our brain is overwhelmed by the amount of information that bombards it and constantly has to make quick decisions, it can forget how to work on a task with concentration and without distraction.
Burnout + Co: Possible physical consequences of urgency culture
But it’s not just our mental abilities and mental health that can suffer because we are constantly available and can do, have and experience everything immediately. There are also health consequences on a physical level. Our nervous system cannot initially distinguish between a car speeding towards us and an email popping up – both signal danger to it, so it initiates the corresponding reactions: our breathing becomes faster, our pulse and blood pressure rise, we pour adrenaline out of.
If we stay in this state for a long time, and we often do, when our smartphone constantly bombards us with messages and app notifications, it can cause tension, affect our sleep and promote inflammation in the body, according to “National Geographic”. Burnout could also be the result if we are no longer able to regulate the stress of constant availability and the perceived urgency.
What can we do to escape Urgency Culture?
But what helps? How do we get out of the vicious circle of being constantly available, multitasking and feeling like we have to do everything right away? Basically, if you’re not feeling well mentally, it can always be helpful to talk to a doctor or therapist so that you can develop strategies together to help you deal with the situation. However, these tips may be able to help in the short term.
1. Set boundaries
The feeling of having to be constantly online and always available for everything and everyone can make us sick. An important first step is therefore to differentiate yourself. This can be especially important at work. If you have your work email program and chat app, such as Teams, installed on your (private) smartphone, it’s best to throw them down. You do not have to be available to colleagues outside of your working hours. And in your private life, you could also tell friends or family members who request that their messages be answered immediately that you will write in peace at a later date. Of course, whether people accept this is out of your hands. But your job in this case is just to clearly communicate your boundaries.
2. Digital Detox
If you have the feeling that social media apps like Instagram, TikTok and Co. are stealing a lot of your time and are helping to shorten your attention span, then the simple solution can often be to go cold turkey. Delete one or more apps from your smartphone, perhaps for a while or even forever. This gives your brain the chance to calm down and learn to concentrate on something for a longer period of time.
3. Conscious single-tasking
It may also help you to consciously practice single-tasking. So instead of half-heartedly working on three things at the same time, write yourself a to-do list ordered by priority. Then work through them calmly, point by point – and practice doing just one thing at a time.
4. Mindfulness
The best remedy against excessive speed is: slowness. By integrating mindfulness practices such as yoga, meditation or simple breathing exercises into your everyday life, you can train yourself to do things consciously and not immediately slip into autopilot mode. After a while, you might be able to be more in the here and now again – instead of constantly jumping to the next step in your mind.
5. Pause
You could also try this simple 2-minute trick: When the impulse arises to reach for your smartphone, first feel within yourself: Does it really have to be right now? Or can you wait two minutes? This way you can practice not giving in to the urge right away, and after a while you might be able to reduce your screen time a little.
6. Limit smartphone time
Speaking of screen time: Most smartphones offer functions that allow you to limit your daily screen time per app. So you may not need a complete detox, but you will learn to live with not being active on Instagram and the like 24 hours a day.