Diary of a Tech Fast

My Two Day Attempt to Abstain from Using.....

• The Internet- Goal Achieved

• Mobile Phone - Non Starter 

• Email - Goal Achieved

• All 3- Total Fast 

First off,we need to clarify the meaning of 'Fast' . This is an exercise in abstinence, not broadband speeds. In September of this year I removed the Candy Crush application from my phone.It just had to be done, although I've never ever been a fan of gaming, Candy Crush became my nemesis. I haven't got the time for games, but what about everything else that my trusty Galaxy SIII provides, could I survive pressing the off key for a maximum of two days?

The answer is no, on the second day I didn't even get as far as silent let alone a complete shut down . I am blaming my mother entirely.We are living in a world where an 86 year old woman, whom at the age of sixteen would drive a pony and trap some 10 miles to the local village in order to make a phone call, cannot fathom, why there would be any reason in the world that she can't contact her daughter in a matter of seconds. How quickly we forget the past, when technology spoils us with life altering methods of communication.

So, I took the easy option and packed away my laptop, of course I can also email, use Facebook and Twitter on my phone so I simply logged out of Facebook, Twitter and switched my email notification function to 'off' .

My chosen times over this two day task

2pm-9pm 

Not a problem the first day. I'm at college 2-7pm, the next day I made busy, actually physically visiting friends and family.
9pm-3am

Read the paper,watched TV and slept. No difficulty here.

3am-9am 

Sleep and breakfast.Easy peasy, I woke up at 8am without an alarm ( not recommended on a daily basis)

The cliched result is that, yes I had more time to myself ( sleep time not included). My phone was not welded to the palm of my hand. I held eye contact in conversations without the obligatory glance at the phone screen ( which I know is an extremely rude habit).

Press Play ....Hands up who is guilty ????

The biggest benefit for me was not having access to Facebook (FB). I realise now that there have been to many wasted minutes scrolling through endless ads that have been shared and liked by my FB buddies. Since this experiment, I now check FB once a day. I nearly missed sending a happy birthday to an old friend, before FB I would have sent a card.Due to the fact that I'm a part time tweeter ,I didn't expect that not accessing Twitter would cause to much heartache.My father buys the broadsheets every day, so I recycled his (imagine spending an extra €2 a day on the news!). Strangely, I found myself only reading the headlines and image captions. Worryingly, I seem to have forgotten about content, skipping over paragraphs to get to the punchline. 

Email and text is non negotiable, we have communicated by written word for thousands of years.Why would we even want to run our lives or businesses without using technology to communicate?  I am having a hard time trying to make an argument that I have been more efficient during this 'fast'. My communication methods are primarily by email and texts.My phone is used as a multitasking tool, it's my alarm clock, teller of time, encyclopedia, diary, data storage device,camera and communication devise. It's not a question  of a phone having total control of my life, I have made the choice to use technology to my best advantage.

My point is that, yes of course we can function without these technologies in our daily life, many people do. The reality is that technology is not going to stop, new technology makes life exciting . We have created tools to make life more efficient, both in our personal and business worlds. Why not use them?