“The global society to which we all belong is dramatically more connected than it was a decade ago, and becoming more so each day. . . This is not a small matter. It’s a struggle that’s taking place at the center of our lives. It’s a struggle for the center of our lives, for control of how we think and feel. When you’re scrambling all the time, that’s what your inner life becomes: scrambled.” -- William Powers in Hamlet’s BlackberryOr what I call the chihuahua effect (my last post). As I grapple to adjust the balance between life online and life connected to my interior creative self, I keep in mind the Dr. Phil question: “Is this working for you?” The good news, I discovered, is that I am not alone. Other people are asking the same question and experimenting with creative answers. Yes, I admit I found these folks online - a touch of irony, perhaps, but I am going for balance, not abandoning life online.
How about a “digital sabbatical”– a week-end (or more) away from online life? That’s what Tammy Strobel (author of Smalltopia) does on a regular basis. (Today Show sees how Tammy declutters her whole life!) Her insightful reflections might inspire you to try it yourself. See A Magical Block of Time: Lessons Learned from my Digital Sabbatical and related posts in her blog Rowdy Kittens: social change through simple living.
These 2-minute VIDEOS are great! Tap into the experience of a diverse set of folks who responded to The Unplugged Challenge from The New York Times. Each one gave up technology for a period of time, and shared how it went and what they learned. Not only do we see just how plugged-in some of us are -- one woman reported reading her wedding vows from her Iphone – we also find out what surprised them. Several chose to make real changes in their daily life with technology.
More than one person reported being more present to real life, especially to friends in the room. One woman decided to write more letters to friends instead of facebook blurbs. Most reported feeling more relaxed away from technology. Not right away, but in a surprisingly short time. Is it the 3-Day Effect?
Several scientists who study the brain took a wilderness vacation together with one rule – no cell phones, no Internet access, no technological distractions -- and noticed “something significant happening on the third day away from technology . . . You start to feel more relaxed,” explained one scientist. “Maybe you don’t reach for your phone pinging in your pocket. Maybe you wait a little longer before answering a question. Maybe you don’t feel in a rush to do anything – your sense of urgency fades.”
Although it was personal experience, not scientific study, the scientists agreed our questions deserve a closer scientific look. Is there anything to this 3-day effect? What happens to us “when we’re overwhelmed with data” vs “when we get away from it?” What happens to our brains on gadgets? In a global society we need technology, but we need it to serve, not enslave us.
“The average person today consumes almost three times as much information” as the typical person in 1960, writes technology journalist Matt Richtel (who coined the “3-day effect”). He uses an analogy we can all get our teeth into: “We know that some food is Twinkies and some food is Brussels sprouts. And we know that if we overeat, it causes problems. Similarly, after 20 years of glorifying technology as if all computers were good and all use of it was good, science is beginning to embrace the idea that some technology is Twinkies and some technology is Brussels sprouts.”
While we wait on scientific studies, William Powers in Hamlet's Blackberry
reminds us of an important truth: “Every crowd is just a collection of individual selves, and to understand what’s happening to those selves right now, we all have instant, no password access to the most reliable source of all. Our own lives can teach us things that no data set ever can, if we’d just pay attention to them.” And that, my friends, is at the heart of working the creative paradigm.
i remember reading an article before on how some of the most powerful people in the world live without cellphones. technology sometimes make us to complacent we forget to exercise our own minds.
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