So I decided to turn my phone off and ban myself from the computer this weekend as a social experiment with myself. Given that I take my Droid and, consequently, the accessibility of the world with me everywhere I go, I wanted to see if I could manage to last 60 hours without this constant connectivity. Moreover, when I consider that I face a constant barrage of updates regarding everything (be it via messaging, email, twitter, or facebook), how different might my world be if I am unable to connect to information and my social circles with the immediate convenience that I’m used to?
Well to start, I’ll say that it was Fan-Effing-Tastic as I was able to engage ten-fold more with those sharing the same physical space as I. Sounds lame. But take a good hard look at how often you engage those physically near you relative to those out in cyber or cellular space. We all have a million friends but none of them are “here”. It felt great to actually be present for once.
When I went out on Saturday night, I realized that I had two options whenever I became uncomfortable at the bar. I could either BE uncomfortable, or I could talk to someone. What I didn’t have the option of doing was using my phone as a crutch. How often do you find yourself checking text messages that you haven’t received because you’re feeling socially insecure? I find that I do it, A LOT.
Despite all of that, perhaps the most unforeseen result of this was the ire that this experiment generated in other people. Confused? Well when I turned my phone back on Monday morning, I had several text messages from friends inquiring about stuff from what I’m doing to if I wanted to grab lunch. Nothing surprising there. What was telling was that upon explaining that my phone had been off for the weekend and that I was sorry for not getting back to them sooner, I had a few different replies which basically said, “You turning your phone off is more annoying to us than it is to you”.
Ding ding ding! This got me thinking…
Technology, accessibility, and connectedness have spoiled us to the point that we now expect information transfer to occur at a rate unheard of 15 years ago. Not only do we expect (and are able) to find the Farsi translation for “crusty feet” in 30 seconds or less, but we also transfer that over to how we expect people to behave within that same technological space. Imagine if all of the search engines decided to say, “Welp folks! We’re going to shut down for the weekend. Anything you need to find you’ll have to find at the library…or, just not find at all. Either way, we can’t help you until Monday. Sorry. Enjoy your weekend.” There would be pandemonium.
Same thing.
Your inaccessibility quickly becomes an inconvenience to others who are unable to reach you whenever they’d like. Your inaccessibility becomes an inconvenience when someone has to wait more than 1hr to hear back from you. Your inaccessibility becomes an inconvenience to everyone except those in your immediate physical space who you, arguably, will wind up appreciating more.
Remember back when if you wanted to talk to someone and they weren’t at home, you just couldn’t talk to them? Remember back when in order to find out the population of Wyoming you had to crack an encyclopedia? Remember back when you had to wait until the 11p news to find out the sports scores? Remember back when life required patience?
Either way, I urge you to give it a try. Detoxing from our phones might be a thought worthy of the withdrawal shakes, but I’d say that it’s worth taking a look at what you might be missing while living a life in pursuit of never missing anything.
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