Reading this book has been a timely event for me. Before it dropped into my lap, I was thinking a lot about how much technology rules our lives. At the same time, I've had some forced offline time due to visiting in-laws and a still-not-entirely-fixed router problem at home.
Anyway, early in the book Powers presents a thought or philosophy that guides how many of us live today. In a nutshell, he suggests that so many of us buy in to the idea that being wired is good, and being unwired is bad. He then terms this digital maximalism (pretty logical, right?), and of course goes on to question it.
I see some truth in his observation that so many of us have bought into digital maximalism. I certainly did. Although I didn't get my own cell phone until 1999 (I hate phones), I secured a treo early on and had email on the go, soon followed by a wifi card for my computer (so I had two options for accessing on the go!). Of course, I had already been accessing wifi at hotspots and running a wireless network at home (so I could wake up and log in before getting out of bed!). All of this is good, right?
Last year I upgraded to an iPhone. Hooray! And then I started leaving the house without my phone (bad, right?). I felt naughty and defiant for going out unwired.
Exploring my own attitudes and actions, I see that I feel like I should always be wired, but really don't want to be. I want to fight back against digital maximalism.
I don't always answer my phone. The way I see it, Caller ID exists so I can make that decision. If it's the daycare or my husband, I'll probably pick up. Anyone else? Eh. Not sure. Depends on whether I can or want to be interrupted. I want to rule the technology and not vice versa.
My mother came to visit the week before this class started and she had a new iPhone. It beeped whenever she got email. How obnoxious! It hadn't occurred to me to have it do that. I prefer to choose when I check email, not to receive notifications whenever it comes in. Again, it's about me being in control. I don't feel in control when I'm in the position of seeing all of the messages come in.
My email habits have changed. I used to live on email (practically) and now I check a few times a day. I think I get more work done that way. It can be thornier when I check, and sometimes things fall through the cracks because I get a lot of email (but don't we all? at one time 300-500 messages/day would have sounded like a lot, but now it's pretty normal for many people), but I like keeping it in its neat little box.
Facebook was really fun at first, but it's a chore when you feel like you have to regularly keep up with 382 friends. And when people you barely recall from high school keep liking your status, is it impolite to not reciprocate? The personal side of being online has really exploded. Various friend email links to their kids online photo albums. I like to get their emails, but feel guilty that I don't always look at the photos and/or send a reply. Leisure quickly becomes work. Reciprocity and replying isn't so bad when your social circle is confined, but my space is linked in, and why? Fie! All so I can be friends with Mork from Orkut and respond whenever he tweets or nanus or flies down from the sky. Puh! The flame has flickred a bit and now I want to spend less time in Facebook and more time with my face in a book. So there.
Anyway, I've cut back on my leisure digital activities. Less time on Facebook. Less time on friends' blogs. Less time reading newspapers online. I'm still online plenty for my own research (blogs! twitter! yay!) and for teaching. I'm just not in front of the computer while eating my dinner, playing with my daughter, and relaxing before bed. And those recent articles in the New York Times about parents ignoring their children because of the technology -- those scared me. I don't want to be those people. My husband and I have banned computers during the hours in the morning and evening when we're with our daughter. And the week after this class is over (and before things start up for fall) I'm going offline entirely to spend with my family.
Finally, I'm excited (and a bit nervous) about my schedule this fall. I'm teaching 2 campus courses. First time ever for 2 on campus in one semester since I've been at FSU. Usually I've had 1 a year on campus, maybe less. Last year I was teaching entirely online. And now I'm swinging back in the other direction. I won't feel on call to Blackboard in the same way. Instead, my life will be fixated on 2 3-hour time blocks (Wed am; Fri am). I think I'll feel free to just not check email at all over the weekends (and I have to admit that I like that idea!). Don't get me wrong -- I love teaching online. And I love the Internet. It's just that I want a period of a few months to be able to step back from all of the digital stuff for a while.
My current theory (and I can perhaps report back in a few months as to how true it is for me) is that digital maximalism is only partly true. Having access when you want it is a good thing, so long as you are in control. As soon as the technology starts to control you and your daily habits, you've lost the benefits. And being unwired is not a bad thing so long as it is a choice. That's what so many of us seem to be forgetting these days: to choose. JMHO & YMMV :)
Thoughts?
I agree that at times we all need to unplug. I also hate phones and will generally not pick up unless the call is from a few select people.
ReplyDeleteI think we all need to be reminded at time that life is not lived online/digitally/virtually. If you walk around campus, or an airport, etc., almost everyone has a cell phone in hand checking notifications or is talking on the phone. A couple months ago I went to see Cirque Du Soleil (for which the tickets were $100+) and there was a whole family in the row in front of me checking their Facebook pages in the middle of the show. It was unbelieveable.
I think that's a really good idea to have specific times of the day when you're not online. Settings those kinds of boundaries can help us not get so wrapped up in the digital world.
Yes! What's up with the people who are texting, calling, etc. in the middle of movies and shows???
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I may be part of that right now. With my husband deployed I JUMP at any opportunity to communicate with him. So, yes, I have the ding thing on my email-it's amazing how like Pavlov's dogs, I am conditioned to smile when an email comes in. 70% of the time it's something else, but that 30% when it's Matt...we'll my heart melts. Okay, enough of that gag me lovey dovey stuff. *And, btw I do NOT have the *ding* on when I'm in a quiet setting.
ReplyDeleteI think I am in need of a "we need to see other people" relationship with facebook. It's become my obsession again, and that is just sad. I have plenty to do, but I just love waisting time looking at everything on there. I've done things in the past where I have forced myself to leave the phone behind, not open the computer (obviously only can do this when school is not in session), and read a book-the "old school" way :)
I too don't always answer the phone. That is specifically why we have caller ID. No, I don't feel like talking to you, and no, I am not a phone person.
I'm hoping that once Matt returns I can live without my phone-litterally stated crying when I left it at home for a few hours, and came home to an email from him.
Technology is AMAZING, but we still need to stop and LITTERALLY smell the roses, watch the sun set, enjoy a movie without texting, or watch a TV program without facebooking...sometimes you just need to BE.
I really get annoyed when I'm in a store and people are walking around having a cell phone conversation with those Bluetooth headsets - a prime example of being too wired IMO. I've watched my daughter spends hours upon hours on the net growing up, at the expense of getting out F2F and getting exercise. That's waned a lot as got older. I try to balance my life in this realm as well.
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