You use a smartphone, right? I mean, who doesn’t? If you don’t, you’re usually seen as a bit of a social pariah. But do we ever stop to think about the use of these devices?
Humour me for a second.
Go back 5 years and think about the devices and services that you used on an everyday basis. Are you using those devices and services today? Will you be using your present-day devices and services in 5 years, 2 years or even 12 months from now?
All of the collective knowledge of the entire human race is conveniently at our fingertips at all times. But with that, comes its share of problems:
- Our friendships are changing.
- Our conversations are changing.
- Our personal knowledge is changing.
- How we spend our time is changing.
- We use devices from some companies that make changes sometimes without our knowledge.
- We use these devices for hours every day and some of us don’t even question it.
Allow me to remove my tin hat and get straight to the point. I waste inordinate amounts of time on my smartphone and social media.
I woke up on January 1st and told myself that something needed to change. Instead of going on a diet or opting for more exercise, I decided that I needed to make a more drastic shift to take attention back from my smartphone.
A technological detox.
So, after a small break from a smartphone and social media for the past few days, I’m going fully back to 2010 to examine how technology has changed our daily life over the past eight years (technological addiction, impacts on personal relationships and the resurgence of analog media, for example).
Here are the rules of “The 2010 Experiment”:
- This change will last thirty days (January 8 to February 7, 2018).
- I will only use phones from 2010 and earlier (an LG P500 and Blackberry 9780) for SMS and phone calls only.
- Furthermore, I will only use technology available in 2010 (i.e.: video games and laptops are okay but tablets and wearables are not). In fringe cases, I will use my best judgement and take note of these instances.
- I will not use social media as they were not prevalent in 2010.
- Throughout, I will record my thoughts through writing, audio and pictures and will put together my collective thoughts in February about the change’s effect on me and others.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know in the comments section below.