How I learned to avoid digital distractions

Working in ecommerce makes it a lot more difficult to avoid technology.

There are a lot of merits to technology. The level of precision, the speed, and the ever-shrinking global atmosphere have created a network where idea exchange can flow faster than imagined thirty years ago. The rise of generations X and Y bring a new breed of socially inept, but technologically brilliant people into the working world. Whether you’re part of this generation or not, could you go back to the way things were before, when there were no such digital distractions to speak of?

I took a course called Changing Media Technologies taught by the brilliant Dr. Harvey at George Washington University. Harvey required that we examine both the tools and the technologies in our life and our dependency on them. We spent a day avoiding technology, writing down every time we ‘cheated’ via a points system, and then wrote reaction papers. It was one of the more eye-opening experiences I had in college.

The level of precision in my life reads like a formal science experiment. If I am going somewhere new, I will Google map it, learn the route, learn the time it will take me to get there, and learn the exact distance I will need to travel to reach the location. There is absolutely no guess work involved. Hitting a detour is like hitting a brick wall. Without technology, I don’t know how to react. Do you pull over? Do you ask? Is it even safe anymore?

The speed with which that precision is delivered is also maddening. Imagine if a webpage took longer than 10 seconds to load. Would you wait or close the page and find a faster one? It’s made us all impatient. Terms like “ADD” get thrown around loosely; undermining those who actually have it and instead become a placeholder for people who no longer have the ability to gather information without speed.

While I have great appreciation for the shrinking global atmosphere, is it really all positive? Yes, I love being able to connect with friends who have moved far away instantly. I would never trade that experience. However, jobs are more easily outsourced, diseases become more communicable through the quick trade of meats and produce and passengers arriving via airplane, and loving from a distance is quickly replacing casual meet ups and dates-by-chance. Is a Skype date with a friend in Europe worth the elimination of human experience within touching proximity?

While the smartphone admittedly serves a number of useful purposes, sometimes it can be nice to put it down and walk away. From Yutaka Tsutano.

Initially, this experiment was painful to me. I didn’t know what time it was at every single second of the day. I had no idea the exact number of calories I burned after a run. It infuriated me to have to plan times to meet up with friends and just sit there and wait — wait! — if they were late. No text message to tell me the bus was not on schedule and no phone call to say if they had to run back for one quick thing. What do you even do without a cell phone if you’re waiting? Look around?

By the end of the experiment, I felt something that I don’t know if I have ever felt as completely before:  relaxed. No one could find out my precise location, demand instant information from me, or contact me from far away for a quick catch up. Nothing was measuring the seconds I was wasting, the calories I was using, or the distance I had gone. I was able to look around, read a book, and take a breath.

Whenever I have a free weekend night, I now try and turn off everything and make it for myself. No one to talk to, nothing to check, and no pressure: life without technology. It’s nice to remember who you are independent of the personality created on social networks and the world of emojis.

The people who truly care will respond next time you log in. Until then, power down and look around.

Tags: digital detox, remzem, tech detox