WHEN computers first appeared, they were hailed as great emancipators that promised to liberate human workers from the monotony of daily drudgery, enabling them to engage in endeavors more conducive to their well being. Modern human beings are typically optimistic in their assumption that things are always getting better. Thus the present is always perceived as more desirable than the past.

This attitude is in essence informed by a modern faith in liquidity, or a postmodern disdain for issues of eternity.

Now, with artificial intelligence and robotics already looming on the horizon, we could be in for more exhilarating discoveries and changes.

But if we compare the savings in time and energy as a result of the use of computer, versus the time an average person wastes on a computer, it becomes obvious that the much-anticipated “emancipation” is just a new enslavement.

In this new bondage an enlightened citizen, with their eyes glued to a small LED screen, spends an inordinate amount of time watching soap operas, playing games, or keeping abreast of the whereabouts or musings of someone they hooked up with online not long ago. This last category is essentially voyeuristic.

In addition, cyberspace churns out a steady supply of celebrities, villains, disasters and comfort food to excite our admiration, sympathy, or rage, as we shift from attraction to attraction, from temptation to temptation.

As we impatiently alternate from sniffing out one tidbit to fishing around for another, our attention span has been curtailed to a minimum. Although some people are fastidious about the food they eat, they omnivorously devour anything flung at them in cyberspace. They are so busy looking up and consuming that they have no time for the time-honored instructions handed down from the ancient sages.

Very few people identify this addiction as a disease. Shame would incline a drug addict to gratify their addiction in the privacy of their home, but most people seem unafraid to exhibit their enslavement to their e-gadgets. A few, though, are showing signs of fatigue, and a longing to slow down and unplug from their digital devices.

According to David M. Levy, in his “Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives,” there are ways people can gradually alleviate the stress brought on by constant online connectivity.

According to Levy, employees spend as much as 50 percent of their time at work managing email (of course, today email is not nearly as addictive and time-consuming as the myriads social tools).

Levy’s manual teaches how to slow down your digital life and connect “mindfully.” It is not hard to see how easily one can get distracted or lost in cyberspace.

“Few of us can sustain our focus on an object with complete, unwavering concentration. But we can voluntarily bring our attention back when we notice that we have strayed,” the author observes.

Rather than allow your mind to be led away by pop up icons, a sensational headline, or a suggestive picture, take charge by exercising conscious control. This means deciding whether it is better to ignore some applications, emails, new feeds on WeChat or new web sites — these seemingly trivial decisions can lead to powerful changes.

Multitasking redefined

As the author notes, “The greater the range of opportunities to extend ourselves, the more challenging it becomes to choose what to pay attention to at this very moment.” When you start to use an electronic device while doing something, you divide your attention. You are actually multitasking. Multitasking means “performing multiple activities or tasks at the same time.”

If you look around, you will be amazed by modern people’s adeptness at multitasking. Many, for example, are busy updating their WeChat accounts while eating, talking, walking or flirting.

A comic image recently sent by a colleague of mine offers a humorous illustration of multitasking. It shows a dramatic battlefield scene complete with fire, billows of smoke, and dead or wounded soldiers scattered across the ground.

Ironically, one fallen soldier still has his eyes glued to a mobile screen on the ground. Given the current hype about Internet plus, there seems to be no limit on things that can accommodate the Internet.

Multitasking used to be a feat. I have heard stories about veteran opinion writers capable of dictating an editorial at short notice while playing Mahjong.

In reality, performing two or more activities simultaneously is almost impossible. Many people believe they’re proficient at multitasking. They are little aware that while engaged in it, nothing they do — be it a task or activity — actually receives their full attention.

“Multitasking is more like ‘multifailing’ ... Our attentional strength is weak, and we aren’t actually focusing deeply or carefully on anything,” the book observes. The brain needs time to shift gears, a process psychologists call “switch costs.” For instance, when you are reading an email while talking on the phone, you are actually shifting your attention back and forth. Multitasking is not as effective as most people believe.

A 2004 study found that employees average 11 minutes for each given task — with each 11 minutes broken down into shorter segments of about three minutes for answering emails or reading web pages — but they need 25 minutes to return to their original task after an interruption. Multitasking can be valuable only when you do it with intention and skill. To achieve a new balance in life, we need to be reminded that “we live in a ‘more-faster-better’ culture where ‘more is not enough’.”

Self-imposed work

The orthodoxy of change — and fast change — is the new mandate that informs and drives all our decisions. Traditionally, bosses were keen on how to make their employees work more in less time. Ironically, in the digital age, work is often self-imposed, as our digital devices can be so engrossing that we reach for them automatically.

The anxiety about missing out on something interesting or important compels us to check our email or WeChat accounts every ten minutes, and this becomes “a source of frustration, stress, overload and overwork.” It is certainly a source of distraction. You might be amazed at how many emails are actually unsolicited spam and how easily you, distracted, stray from your original intention and drift aimlessly through cyberspace. There are simple rules that can help rebalance your life.

If the amount of email you receive is a trigger for stress, adopt a “zero inbox policy” solution, filter and respond to only pertinent emails, and delete the rest. If your relationship with digital devices represents a sort of addiction, it’s time to unplug and get real.

In spite of the cultural imperative to do more in a shorter time, we are biologically constituted for a slower rhythm.

And only conscious power of will can lift us from our digital predicament.