What happens when you tell a technology journalist — and self-confessed tech junkie — to put down the technology?
Author’s Note: I orginally wrote this at the start of the year, but was reminded of it yesterday by a piece written by the excellent Luke Hopewell over at Gizmodo, where he took a social media break for a weekend. My observations are clearly different to his, which is not to say that I’m right and he’s wrong. It’s just an interesting thought within a highly technology-focused world.
I’ve just spent a week with the least technology interaction I’ve had for decades. It’s done me a world of good, on multiple levels. Here’s why you should give it a try.
Over the last week, I went back to something that gave me a great deal of enjoyment when I was much younger: Acting.
The truth be told, I haven’t done any serious acting for years and years; I was keen on drama of all types as a teenager, and even into my early twenties, but a mix of getting on poorly with the drama department at my university of choice and being captivated by other factors meant that, aside from a couple of university level roles (all very minor), I’d not looked at a script for a very long time.
One of my plans for 2014 is to redress that imbalance, and with that in mind, I did an intensive one week course at the National Institute Of Dramatic Art. Intensive doesn’t begin to cover it; for what it’s worth I’d heartily recommend the course to anyone of any age who’s interested in really challenging themselves. Also, I’m totally available for acting work.
Ahem. That’s not what I’m meant to be writing about at all, is it?
Anyway, one factor with being shut in an often steamy rehearsal room for seven straight hours a day was that phones were strictly verboten. My head had kind of registered that fact going in, but it was only on the first day that I suddenly realised I’d have to do a bit more than just drop my phone into my bag rather than its usual resting place in my pocket.
It would need to go on silent… and it was when I was silencing it that I realised that I was still wearing my Pebble smartwatch. Nice bit of kit, the Pebble, but one that was likely to buzz up at any time I got a call, email, phone message, tweet, Facebook mention… and so on.
A definite concentration killer, in other words, and in a room where I was (unusually for me) the oldest person in the room, I needed every bit of concentration I could muster. So I reluctantly removed it.
The only bit of technology I kept on was the Jawbone Up bracelet, largely because I was keen to see how much I’d move around during the week. The answer was “A lot”, given I easily hit my daily targets and especially as I often removed it for work that involved lots of intense physical movement. Technically, it’s also meant to vibrate if I don’t move a bit every thirty minutes, but I was never still for that long. Right now, my knees are telling me all about that.
The first day hit me the worst; I’m a definite and confirmed technology addict, and the temptation to simply grab my phone and check I hadn’t missed a call or email was really quite strong. I could indulge that all I wanted in the evenings, and did so on the train ride home, but generally got home with either paying work to do — heads down, no distractions again — or simply exhausted. Often both.
By Wednesday, it was starting to dawn on me just how used I’d become to having technology within easy grasp for most of the time, because I was starting to easily leave it behind more and more. I wasn’t fussed by dropping it into my bag, and dropping the Pebble beside it was a joy, because not knowing the time meant that I wasn’t clock watching at any point at all, and could simply enjoy the experience.
By the end of the week, my view on technology had significantly shifted.
I know that this is the point where i’m meant to talk about undergoing technology cold turkey, because that’s the usual approach that this kind of article takes. Stop and smell the roses, and all that kind of thing.
Except that isn’t exactly that kind of article.
For a start, I wasn’t on a complete cold turkey experience anyway, but also because as a tech writer, it’s given me a new appreciation for technology and its role in all of our lives, above and beyond the usual “you don’t have to respond to every email right away” kind of thing.
I’ve started noticing when it’s being used in everyday situations; I was far more annoyed one day with a driver clearly on her mobile phone — the dead giveaway being that head-cocked-to-the-side-motion that indicates either a phone call or that the owner has a serious ear infection — than I would have been previously. I’ve started considering the appropriate roles of technology for all kinds of users more, rather than just a chase for the latest and greatest feature sets.
Heck, I’ve even started picking up more on when technology has quickly dated; sitting down to watch 2009’s Doctor Who season finale “The Last Of The Time Lords”, I couldn’t help but notice that Martha Jones is communicating with a Motorola RAZR… which looks horribly dated.
http://youtu.be/UBnlnxewnPs
I’ve also started appreciating the simple things that technology enables, and that’s probably the biggest benefit to taking a technology holiday.
It’s not necessarily about detox; it can simply be about appreciating what you can do– and can’t, or shouldn’t stress about doing — with technology right now.
Prior to last week if I’d left some of the emails that had to wait for as long as I’d left them over the last week, I would have fretted about it. Now, while I have no real intention of leaving anyone hanging (that’s just rude, technology or not), I’m more aware of my own time management, what’s feasible and what’s not, and where technology can be used for my benefit, rather than just something that I use obsessively.
It’s not that old cliché about being able to quit anytime I want to, but not wanting to; it’s about sensible use alongside everything else. That might just count as heresy from a technology writer, mind you.