Credit dylanroscover
When I hear/read/see something in threes, I take notice.
- I read an article about digital overload in The Seattle Times while waiting for my americano last Sunday.
- I listened to this NPR podcast on digital overload while walking my dog Tuesday.
- This article on technology and its effect on interaction while traveling appeared on Matador Goods Wednesday.
I love my laptop, I love my iPhone. I love email and Facebook and Twitter and my job, which requires me to be online and use many of those things. But some of the points made by these articles made me stop and think.
Engagement
Can we honestly leave a trail and experience the world if we’re as connected traveling as we are when we’re at home? [Spencer Spellman]
The Matador article mentions using Twitter to ask for restaurant recommendations while traveling. The first comment made me laugh: “Is it really that hard to find a decent restaurant in Paris—in any neighborhood—just by opening your eyes and looking around?” Technology can help us find things, but it can also make us miss so much by taking our eyes off of the world around us.
Both research and intuition have told me that when my devices are present, I am less present…I can’t stand it when I’m not looking at my son or paying attention to him, I can tell when I’m not. And I can’t stand it, frankly, when other people aren’t invested in me, and my relationship with him and with my family has really made it very clear to me that if I’m constantly looking at my device, I’m not giving him what he deserves as a human being, and I think I’m also creating a human being in him that is going to give others less than they deserve. [Matt Richtel]
I’m not a parent, but that doesn’t make this statement any less relevant – a person is a person, be they two months or fifty years old. I’ve always rolled my eyes at people who sit with one another silently at restaurants while they text/email/tweet others. I fear becoming “that girl”.
Rats in a Cage
Credit ComputerHotline
Everyone can find some way to relate to the idea of intermittent reinforcement, but none more so than an author querying agents or on submission:
If you have a rat in a cage, and the rat doesn’t know when the food dispenser is going to dispense a pellet, it feels compelled to check all the time. [Matt Richtel]
It’s hard for me to disconnect. Really, really hard. Even if I’m not expecting a particularly important email, if I can check, I want to. But even more, I do not want to be a rat in the cage. (Insert rock out hand here.) I don’t want to condition myself to slobber and salivate when my iPhone rings with its little message bell.
My Tech Detox Plan
At some point, like with food, a lengthy cleanse will be in order. Right now, I just can’t – I work online. However, a little bit goes a long way – add a salad, cut the dessert, that sort of thing.
Six days a week, I will work and email and tweet and Facebook and text. One day a week, starting this Sunday, I will not. What I will do instead:
Credit Grzegorz Lobinski
- Write (by chisel and stone, or pencil and paper, or some antiquated method)
- Play music
- Listen to music
- Explore
- Talk (with my voice)
- Walk
- Run
- Eat
- Drink
- Read
- Ride the bus somewhere
- Drive somewhere
- Do something
- Do anything
- Do everything
- Give the Macbook a day of rest
I’m simultaneously dreading it and desperately craving it. Saturday night, I’ll check everything online on last time, then sign off until Monday morning.
iQuit. But just for a day. Want to give it a shot with me? Please let me know if you’re thinking about doing a tech detox. We’ll tweet about it.
I was actually thinking about doing the same thing, maybe Saturday night-Sunday night.
Awesome. We’ll tweet each other. Mentally. Telepathic tweets.
I was actually forced into it last weekend by the fact that I found myself with an overload of work the previous week. I had totally underestimated how long it would take and ended up with eyes attaached to the screen day and night for too many days in a row. My body suffered to the point where I actually had no desire whatsoever to touch the computer for three days. Even after that I had to force myself to get back on it because I knew there was stuff I needed to catch up on, but I took it slowly. I had to convince myself that the world would not end because I didn’t do a blogpost that week (duh!) I’ve been writing a post about it that I’ll put up soon.
Good luck with the detox. I think you’ll find benefit just from getting outside and brething real air for a couple of hours.
Oops, sorry! That was me, Marie, above. My husband had left his ID logged on.
Thanks, Marie! I know what you mean – SO weird how guilty I feel when I go too long without blogging. No one is asking me to do it, no one will mind, or probably notice, if I don’t! Very odd.
so smart Michelle– I see what you’re describing with parents and kids all the time and it worries me.
I am inspired by this!
Thanks, Katharine! Let me know if you do it too!
I try to detox one day a week (although my detox day is supposed to be Saturday and it’s Saturday now…oops).
Okay, logging off now…
Haha – enjoy your weekend, Jennifer!
Yay! I’m doing the Sunday “tech sabbath” thing too. Only had one real go at it so far, but it felt goooooooood. Actually, I hardly noticed I was doing anything differently, which probably means it just felt “natural” or “right.”
Damn – I went through a lot of potential names for this in my head, but “Tech Sabbath” tops them all! I’m hoping it does feel natural, and I don’t start going into tweetless convulsions or something.
Oh yes! I’ve been thinking about doing this since Hal posted something similar on his blog, but I’ve always had work to do and felt like I *couldn’t* log off on Sunday. But I’m with you- let’s do it!!
Awesome, Julie! My husband has challenged me to pick a day instead of Sunday occasionally. His point being that it’s the day I get the least emails, so it’s kind of an excuse. If I could shut down on a Monday…that would be interesting. (And, on Tuesday morning, terrifying!)
Haha, I chose Sunday for the same reason, Michelle.
We’re such cheaters.
What a cool idea! Maybe I will join you in this.
Yay, Kaitlin! Join the mental-tweets.
Totally with you on this. I started the Sunday detoxing as well but caved the following week. Will hop on it next week. Not tomorrow because it’s already 4:13 am on Sunday morning here as I type this!
[...] few weeks ago I posted my “iQuit: Technology Detox” plan. The idea was to be 100% Internet (and gadget) free for 24 hours. At the time, it was [...]
[...] hit that point with the Internet. Awhile back I posted about my tech detox, and I’ve stuck to it – Mondays are Internet-free. And while that has definitely been a [...]