Simplify: Forcing a Tech “Break”
on 03.02.08, 02:26pm in simplify • share on facebook • comments (4)
[New York Times] Like many, though, I wondered whether breaking my habit would be entirely beneficial. I worried about the colleagues, friends, daughters, parents and so on who relied on me, the people who knew that whether I was home or away I would get back to them, if not instantly then certainly before the end of the day. What if something important was happening, something that couldn’t wait 24 hours?
Thinking back over the last 10 years, the only time I really took a “break” from technology was a 3 week period while I was hiking in Nepal. Of course, I was able to find the random tea house that had an internet connection, but it was the exception rather than the norm.
As an experiment, I may pick one night a week away from the laptop. Come home from work, and simply not touch the computer again until the following morning.
On a similar note, I wonder how much more work I could get done if I simply ‘disconnected’ from the net for a few hours in the morning. No more RSS, Web, Email, Instant Messaging, etc. for 4 hours, every day.. I think I’ll give that a try this week and see what happens. Or, at least I’ll give it a whirl tomorrow. 
Morning Update: It’s 7:13am – So much for that idea, gonna fire up the RSS reader.
Randy (March 2, 2008 @ 7:27 pm)
Weirdo. *g*
It’s like giving up coffee. You can, but what good does it really serve?
Leif Hansen (March 3, 2008 @ 12:48 pm)
What good does it serve? Healthier life? More present to people? More balanced life? More centered? The list goes on…
Anyway, Hi Steve, my name is Leif Hansen (I’m the managing director of Spark Northwest) and I’m one of the two facilitators for the Soul Tech workshop that was recently shown last week on the Today Show.
One of our participants, Ariel Meadows started her 52NightsUnplugged experiment as a result of our workshop, which in turn was mentioned in the NY Times article you’ve sited in your post (Ariel was also on the Today Show for the live portion.)
While I do think there are some practical things one can do (i.e. bracket one’s tech time with breaks, set some family boundaries, set a power-timer on your wifi, etc) our workshops are really more about facilitating a process that helps people to think about how technology is helping or hindering the achievement of broader life/work goals.
Actually, we’ve just put together a 7 step e-workbook that takes people through the same process. The steps and exercises covered in the e-workbook are basically to:
(perhaps first identify what you like about your tech life)
1. Identifying your challenges with tech
2. Identify the needs trying to get met
3. Develop your vision/goals
4. Finding your focus
5. Finding solutions
6. Turning ideas into actions
7. Sticking with your plan (can be hardest)
I think if people would really take the time to think about what they want from life, and how technology is helping and hindering their moving in that direction, it would be a tremendous first step.
Unfortunately, most of us would rather just turn off our minds, and click on some entertainment. Neil Postman called it “Amusing Ourselves to Death”.
Good luck and keep us posted on your process!
Warmly,
Leif
http://www.SparkNW.com
smakofs (March 9, 2008 @ 9:50 am)
Roger Waters also has an album “Amused To Death” which also asserts the same thing that Postman does… Interesting!
Leif Hansen (March 11, 2008 @ 7:10 am)
Just found this article –apparently Roger’s album was inspired by Postman’s book. Postman also has another excellent book called “Technopoly” that gets at some of the roots of the problem. Of course Jacques Ellul’s classic “The Technological Society” (translation from french) is a great starting place for anyone wanting to dive more seriously into this topic.