How to Have a More Liberated Relationship With Technology
Is anyone else besides me feeling social media fatigue? How about general technology malaise?
Lately I’ve been noticing how excessive time on my laptop (and heck, some days that means any time) feels deleterious to my soul.
Since a good part of my livelihood depends on doing things on a computer, this is a conundrum.
This is not a new feeling. I’ve been aware of it for the past few years and have tried out different steps to come into a more balanced relationship with technology. I know of many other creative people who are grappling with the same issue. Maybe you’re one of them.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to attend the first Wisdom 2.0 conference. Some of the excellent speakers included Roshi Joan Halifax, Soren Gordhamer, Chris Sacca, Chade-Meng Tan, and Lori Deschene.
My biggest takeaway from Wisdom 2.0 was the importance of skillful means — of bringing the same quality of attention and thoughtful consideration to our decisions regarding how we use technology as we do to other parts of our life.
As I’ve been dealing with this latest round of technology burnout, I asked some friends (yes, on Facebook, ironically!) how they find more balance in their relationship to social media and other aspects of technology. Here are their excellent suggestions:
I like to leave my cell at home when I am at work.
Manavjeet Kaur
I have edited my news feed, so I don’t get ‘anything’, but things I am interested in. When I’m on holiday, I don’t connect. We don’t allow phones at meal times. We set the timer for work, and in that time social networks are not allowed to interfere.
Tiffany Jones
I turned off all notifications on my phone. Nothing that happens on social media is more important than what’s happening right in front of me. It’s important that I choose when to check in, not that I am *alerted* constantly.
Britt Reints
I deleted [an] app from my phone because it kept crashing. But after the initial phase of having to resist the habit of looking at it several times a day, I found it was good for me and I haven’t reloaded it. It’s been about 6 months now of only using it when I’m at home and I think I’ll stick with that. I have my news feed pretty trimmed and hide people if they start posting excessively. I also refuse to join any new social media networks – Facebook is enough.
Bronwyn Mitchell
1 sabbath day…no social media for a 24 hour period. [Maia’s note – I really love this idea and try to take a complete break from the computer on most Saturdays.]
Jane Steinberg
Structural limits – like no app on my mobile device + no cell phone. Also, try to only do Facebook in the a.m.
Jill Seidenstein
And I’ll add a few more ideas:
- I don’t have a smartphone. Just a very simple cell phone that makes and receives calls. Really, what more does a phone need to do?! I admit — sometimes I get iPhone envy… but I’m also really happy that I’m not tempted to be checking my email all the time and surfing online. And my pay-as-you-go bill is usually less than $20 a month.
- While I need to use Google calendar for one of my clients, I don’t use an online calendar for my own personal scheduling. I rely on an old-fashioned paper calendar. (My absolute favorite, after many years of testing, comes from Quo Vadis.) It just feels good to write things down by hand and I find I remember them better that way.
- On a similar note, when I am writing in a more creative vein, I break out my paper journal and favorite pen. I mostly don’t do that kind of writing on a computer. Writing by longhand triggers a very different part of my mind and heart, and I like the results much better.
- I’ve installed the “Prod Me” widget on my computer which I can set for various increments of time. If I set it to chime every hour, I take that as my reminder to stop whatever I’m doing, take a break and breathe and stretch. Works like a charm.
How about you? What ways have you found to stay in a wholesome relationship to technology? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
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6 Comments
That the first notification for this blog entry sent as a blank was shear poetry.
Being a relatively late adopter, regarding media devices, I’m thankful that my use of them is still informed by the values stabilized in their absence. It’s like when I lived in Manhattan, and found that having spent much of the preceding three decades among wilderness, mountains, informed how I was able to be a city dweller. The familiar habit of acute, panoramic attention that forests instill made urban life appreciable in the most natural of ways.
Same’s true for my migration across the digital divide six years ago, or my recent purchase/use of a smartphone. Just as there’s little that’s wasteful in the processes of wilderness, I notice that I retain lessons from nature while engaging what’s considered artificial, including cyberspace. A purposive undertone to my navigations prevail. So while I can sympathize with overwhelm and sense the potential for it, I feel spared, so far.
I’ve watched very little television since 1982, and I find that carrying over into how even the online news I access tends to be articles rather than videos. Today my ‘diet’ is conducted in light of that long proven value of ‘fasting’.
I see my usage of our technological connectivity as an expression of the primary connectivity that’s always going on, and always has. If I’m still in a naive honeymoon phase so be it. It seems to be working for me, for those around me, and certainly for distant family members.
In general, and proportionally, the time I used to spent with books is nowadays applied to online reading. While that’s a kind of loss what’s gained is simply different, not necessarily less productive, though there’s no known substitute for the depth of a book. Just as the best of books doesn’t take the place of a person-to-person living. Even as I write that I think that might be the statement of a dying breed.
April 9, 2013
Yes, there are definite contemplative advantages to being a late adopter, Kerry!
One thing that I do appreciate about what I’ll call “new media” — the Internet has made it possible for us to customize our information and wisdom sources in ways that work for each of us. So some of us are visual learners and love getting information from videos; for others, written articles are the best way to digest information. And then there are so many different voices out there to choose from, and the possibility for each of us to create our own media channel to share our own voices, which is essentially what I’ve done with the Liberated Life Project.
So just like anything, all this technology is not inherently bad or good… it really depends on the mind and heart with which we relate to it, and how conscious and awake we are when we are making our technology and media choices.
just my opinion ; )
April 10, 2013
I hear you. I too am in the business of being online and promoting the value of being online – which means I have to spend extra time online to understand the moment’s best practice. It feels as if you just master one thing and the software changes or the rules and you are constantly chasing after making sure all your digital ducks are in a row:)
Thanks for this post, glad I’m not the only overwhelmed person online.
April 9, 2013
I love that you don’t have a smartphone. I also love my iPhone and I know I would have a REALLY hard time giving it up now.
April 9, 2013
Hey Britt,
You know, I have wanted to get an iPhone more times than I can tell you… and I may end up doing just that. I don’t want to be too sanctimonious in this post! What has ‘saved’ me is living in a location where I hardly get any cell phone coverage, and it just seems like a waste to be paying lots of money for a phone that I can only use when out traveling. But I know if I do get one, I’ll probably feel the same way as you… I’d love it and have a hard time giving it up! But for now, I really do appreciate not having one. When I’m out in the world and see everyone transfixed by their phones rather than what’s in front of them, I think, “There but for the grace of god go I!”
April 9, 2013
Maia,
I could say the same for me! I do have an iPod touch, which allows me to get online via wi-fi. And I just signed up for Google Voice, so people can send me text messages more easily. There is a way to send text(SMS) via email, but it’s clunky. My main point is, the iPod allows me to connect, but if I’m out of the house, it’s unlikely I’ll be in a spot where there is free wi-fi.
Also, after I tweeted you my response, I also thought of turning off all notifications, including emails. And right now, Facebook is being unreliable in emailing me the notifications anyway.
Just one other note. If you are having trouble limiting yourself while you are working on the computer, there is some software called Freedom. It won’t let you get online for the amount of time that you set.
April 9, 2013