Welcome to episode 232 of Live Happy Now. I'm your host, Paula Phelps, thanking you for joining us again this week.

Now, it comes as a surprise to exactly zero people that we're facing an addiction to our digital devices,

and that's having a huge effect on our lives, both at home and at work.

Today's guest, Pete Dunlap, is leading the charge for what he calls humane technology

use. His book, Digital Detangler, a guide to mindful technology use, won the Next Generation

Indie Book Award and the Independent Press Award in 2019 for its thoughtful examination

of technology and his insight on how we can better use it. He also started Digital Detangler Family

Services, which helps families address the crisis of tech addiction together. He welcome to live happy

now. I'm really excited to have you today as a guest.

Thank you.

I appreciate you having me, Paula.

Well, you know, this is a topic that we look at a lot here at Live Happy Now because

it really seems that the digital world is playing a significant role in our anxiety and our

unhappiness.

One of the things that you talk about is that

technology overuse can even cause mental health problems. So can you start by telling us how

technology is affecting our mental health and what kind of problems it's creating?

Yeah. So to me, this is a really important question. So is the way that we're using technology causing mental health problems?

And there are various people who will give you different opinions.

But most of it, and I just listened to your podcast with Kelly Harding, which was really, really great.

And I think a lot of it goes back to some of the things she was talking about, about the way we interact socially.

And so the extent to which our technologies affects our social lives is probably the extent to which it impacts

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