What we miss when we look down

There are so many reasons we look down.

We check a message, read something, look something up, answer a notification or check to see what has appeared on our screen. It can take only a moment. Yet while we're looking down, something else may be happening around us.

I’m curious about what we miss when our attention is on the screen in front of us.

While we're looking down

Someone might walk past us. A bird might land nearby. The light might change. Someone beside us might say something. We may not notice any of it.

Our eyes are looking down, but it isn't only our eyes. Our attention has gone there too.

The things we don't notice

Not everything we miss is important.

Most of the time, it probably doesn't matter that we didn't see what happened for those few seconds. Sometimes there are small things we might have noticed. A smile from someone passing by. A familiar face. Something happening in the street. A moment of quiet.

We may never know what we missed because we didn't see it.

When looking down becomes a habit

Sometimes we look down without really deciding to. We have a spare moment, so we check our phone. We are waiting, so we look at the screen. We are walking somewhere and our attention goes there almost automatically. The phone gives us something to look at.

There is always something waiting for us.

Looking up again

There is nothing wrong with looking at our phones. We need them. We use them for so many things.

We might notice when we've been looking down for a while and look up to take in what's around us. Who is nearby? What's happening around us that we might have missed while our attention was on the screen?

What might be waiting for our attention?

Our attention cannot be everywhere.

We will miss things. We will look down. We will get caught up in something on our screen.

Perhaps the point isn't to stop looking. It's to remember to look up sometimes.

I wonder what you might notice the next time you put your phone down and look around.