Hello, hello everyone. This is Tanya Dalton, owner of Inquell Press, and I'm here to give you another episode of The Weekender, a mini episode to help you end your week on the right note.

This week on the podcast, we talked about being a self-interruptor, and I wanted to take

today's mini episode to talk about one of the biggest sources, technology. Technology was really

invented to bring us together. Think about what the telegraph and the phone were designed to do.

They allowed us to be separated but connected.

And it's a beautiful thing that we're able to live across borders

and even across oceans and still keep in touch.

But while they're designed to bring us closer together,

sometimes these digital distractions can cause us to feel less connected

to the people around us.

In the world of online trolls and anonymity, it can be easy to feel alone and actually disconnected.

Dan Zygman, who happens to be the director of analytics for Facebook's newsfeed and a Zen priest,

kind of an interesting juxtaposition here, don't you think?

He says that technology can encourage positive human connection. He says when printed books and newspapers and radio

and television all first appeared, people had the same concerns. And those concerns had some

validity. Why would you need to venture out if you had the newspaper delivered

and television programming arriving at your house effortlessly? But society didn't collapse as a result of

those technologies. And I think it became richer. We have the same risks and the same concern in

today's world, but I think we can manage them. He recommends mindfulness when we

engage on social media. Instead of getting sucked into mindlessly scrolling your social media feed,

take time to enjoy the stories and the images that are shared. And instead of getting caught up

in unkindness, return to the principles of communicating in a thoughtful and mindful way.

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