My relationship with technology

I use my laptop and my phone all the time. Majority of my work and life happens in the digital world. But I always thought that I was mindful about technology consumption. Until I realised I wasn't.

⚡ Amount of time that I spend in the virtual world

In September my phone popped up a message:

You've been using your phone on average 1h less per day than the week before.

What? How? Since then, I've been using my phone less and somehow managed to get another hour each day. All good right?

Then two months later my fancy PC said:

You've been on your PC on average 10h+ a day. 😱

Despite this being a likely scenario or at least scenario that I "bought". It was still pretty insane.

How the fuck is this even possible? When I looked at my schedule, it became clear:

I'm awake 16h a day. It takes me 1 - 2h to get up, shower, do errands, 1 - 2h for food per day. I'm left with two hours a day participating in the real world if I spend 10h on a PC each day. And even those few hours in the evening before bed are often spent behind the screen ...

I've been pretty mindful about the technology in the past, and I left the PC alone now and then.

Lately not so much. So over Christmas this year I placed the PC on the bookshelf for three days:

Before I completely detached myself from the digital world I let a collage (another software developer) from Sledilnik know that I'll be out of pocket:

• Me: Hey I'll test this code on Monday. I have a PC detox until then.
• Him: Smart, I'll try copying your approach.

I was positively surprised with his response and am glad to report that we both managed to escape the PC for the duration of Christmas 🙂

⚡ Detox results

... were pretty mind-blowing.

• I wrote 25 A4 pages in three days and read a lot.
• Managed to come up with a Twitter campaign, newsletter topics, ...

My brain was pumping out ideas like crazy.

I used to do at least a day per week without the PC. Now that I have a full-time job and work on my freedom business in the free time it's inevitable for me to spend some time on the PC over the weekend if I want to push things forward.

Although I have a gut feeling that a better strategy would be to take three days a week of the PC regularly, then carefully think things through during the PC detox and then use the week for execution.

Might work 🤷‍♂️ Another Life Experiment . With what result? Maybe a failure 🤓 but that doesn't matter as long as I try.

My work's main issue is that most of the final results like this blog post and my research work require me to use the PC. But definitely not 10h a day.

⚡ How I try to avoid the PC?

I've been trying to force my thinking onto the paper from the PC for a while now.

I use a set of journals. The:

• Bullet journal for quick notes.
• Research journal A4 version that allows me to write down longer trains of thought. Derivations, article drafts, some code sketches, sketches, ...

Yes, I try to do most of the thinking on paper and still spend 10h a day on the PC. Imagine what would be the number if I didn't. I rather not ...

⚡ Phone usage

Recently I re-downloaded Twitter, IG, Slack to the phone and now I'm checking the phone pretty much regularly again, ... So that one hour "saved" a few months ago is gone ...

If I don't use the phone, I check social media on the PC where the whole process is less "effective". Plus YouTube minefield is way more dangerous on the PC. At least for me.

I found it way easier to keep the phone at a distance when my apartment had two rooms. Being in the same room as my phone is pretty wired and doesn't work well, ...

I have a love-hate relationship with my phone, for sure. I tried going cold turkey with the phone several times to practice JOMO , but it didn't work. I ended up in the FOMO camp over and over again.

Despite failing to get down my phone usage (which is not that high compared to the world averages), I try to be mindful of what I use on the phone.

I have the web browser disabled, so I can't monkey around the web on the phone. But I have Twitter and Slack.

Why Twitter? I see real potential here for my brand, and whether I like it or not, I need to use some media form to promote my work.

Apparently living under a rock doesn't help you reach people even though I feel pretty comfy below there as a crab.

⚡ Screen: The window to the world

Especially now during COVID reality show, we're all participating in; our phones are our window to the world.

Sure digital products were around before, but now, the only way to contact with friends is through technology or breaking the rules (which is a no, no if you're trying to be a good citizen).

So ironically even if we want to we can escape Zoom 😭:

In a span of 10 years, we allowed the technology to take over such a large proportion of our lives. It's kind of scarry.

On the web, we can be anyone (by web I mean the modern world because let's face it, it's the same fucking thing).

It's true on the PC, and the web lies an entirely new and shiny world compared to the real one. Why is it so appealing?

⚡ Why is the web so appealing?

Just to burst your bubble if you're still living in one. Web and digital technologies are addictive by design.

Addictive because certain companies (let's not name names) are investing armies of smart coders and trucks of cash into getting your attention.

Netflix publicly said: Our biggest competition is human tiredness.

So if you're ever feeling guilty and bad because you yet again fell for the attention trap don't be too harsh on your self. Remember that you're competing against the smartest and most funded companies in the world.

Sometimes you'll lose the attention war. Sometimes you won't, but as sure as hell try to fight back.