Semantics & So On

I have seen several articles recently about people retreating from modern technology. Some people are snapping up old iPods rather than relying on streaming subscriptions. Others are setting aside pricey tablets. The common theme is that many people are dissatisfied with the digital life. The articles amuse me because I started retreating from intrusive technology a few years ago. I never thought I’d be part of a broader phenomenon. I was a digital minimalist before digital minimalism was cool.

I didn’t do it out of any sort of principle or to make a statement. It arose from an impulse three years ago or so. After dinner one night, I blinked and it was time for bed. Four hours had passed and I’d done nothing but play pointless games on my iPad and doom-scroll social media. That was a lot of time to put into activities that didn’t give me real satisfaction. Disgusted, I shut the iPad down and stuffed it in a drawer, vowing not to turn it back on again. I didn’t touch it again for three weeks.

Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t as easy as that. I doubt I went five minutes without reaching for it. Over the next couple of days, I repeatedly thought about getting it out. “One game,” I’d tell myself, or, “Five minutes on Reddit, that’s all.” I wanted oblivion. Instead, I’d pick up a book or magazine. I had tons lying around that I hadn’t gotten to, what with all the candy to crush. It took a week for the distraction craving to fade.

It felt good. 

I was doing things I enjoyed. When I didn’t feel like reading, I’d do something else. Go out to my wood shop. Write. Listen to music. Play guitar.

But if you was so much happier, why did I relapse after three weeks?

I didn’t. Yes, I took the iPad out of its drawer again. I fired it up. But not to play games or engage on social media. I had a specific purpose in mind. I was still writing fiction at that point, and my monthly critique group meeting was two days away. I preferred to mark up the submitted pages on screen, using the Apple Pencil. Once I finished that work, I uploaded the critiqued pages to the group folder, turned the iPad off, and put it away again. 

I repeated that pattern every month for almost a year. After that, I realized my addiction to gaming and to doom scrolling was well and truly broken. I didn’t want to do those things anymore. My first instinct when I had free time was to do something interesting, or at least useful. (The house suddenly got a lot cleaner during this period. I wonder why.)

With the addiction broken, I repurposed the iPad as a productivity tool. I deleted all the entertainment apps. Moved productivity apps to the dock for ease of access. I hoped those changes would keep me from turning it back into a distraction.

It worked. I used it for writing, especially to collaborate with a friend on a few articles. My personal finance app lived there, too. Outside of those activities, the only other use was to read the news in the morning. But I didn’t doom scroll. I read actual news on sites like the Guardian and Reuters. When I wasn’t doing one of those things, I set it aside and spent my time on things I wouldn’t regret. I was also happier because I wasn’t absorbing negativity from social media. I was enjoying my life, not merely enduring it.

During the same time period, I also re-evaluated the way I used my phone. When I originally put the iPad away, I also blocked Blue Sky and Reddit on my phone. I started leaving it behind when I was working or doing tasks around the house and yard. I also used an app called Freedom to set up time-boxed block sessions, where I couldn’t do much beyond check the time. As with the iPad, it wasn’t productivity I was after, but personal satisfaction, and I got it. 

I’ve recently shifted the way I use the iPad again, primarily for reading news, books, and articles. I don’t use it for productivity as much because I have a laptop for that. I’ve never gone back to the doom scrolling. Not on it, not on the phone.

When I see articles about others taking the same path, it heartens me to see that I’m not alone. None of us want to reject technology entirely. Like me, they’re saying,”I don’t want to be so absorbed with these devices at the expense of a satisfying life.” Who knew that I was a trendsetter? 

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Featured image by Michaela Murphy on Unsplash

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