This is a verbatim copy of a blog assignment written for school.
When I learned that we were being assigned to spend three hours without using electronics or information systems, my reaction was immediate dread and frustration, and anticipating making time for it brought back similar feelings whenever my mind returned to it. I decided, eventually, to get this done and over with so I would stop having to worry about when I was going to do it, and took my time techless from 8-11 PM on Tuesday the 25th.
When I learned that we were being assigned to spend three hours without using electronics or information systems, my reaction was immediate dread and frustration, and anticipating making time for it brought back similar feelings whenever my mind returned to it. I decided, eventually, to get this done and over with so I would stop having to worry about when I was going to do it, and took my time techless from 8-11 PM on Tuesday the 25th.
This time began as I was nearing home on a walk back from town to drop off a CV and buy groceries, since I was not willing to make this trip without listening to any music or podcasts. With forethought, I set an alarm on my phone to go off in three hours and three minutes, and set it to Do Not Disturb so that it would not make any sound until then. This way, I would know when my time was up. In a way, then, I could not get away from using my phone, since I was passively making use of its time tracking, but I will not apologise for this; My house does not actually have a clock in it, use of devices like mobile phones which also tell time having been so ordinary and constant that no-one bothered to get one. It reminded me of attending classes in room D521, where the wall clock is perpetually stuck at 10:00 and we are not allowed to check our phones, and so by extension are not allowed to check the time.
Throughout the day, even before I started the challenge, I was thinking about angry things to say about being assigned to do this. Among them: It is not very difficult to take time away from connectedness if you want to. For some, it's a very relaxing experience to let go of the need to answer to friends or bosses and be informed of every new thing as it happens. Country retreats away are popular for good reason. However, it's a different matter when you're doing it on someone else's command. Any given person has almost certainly at some point, when they weren't thinking about it, gone three hours at a time without scratching their nose, but it's a part of human nature that if someone tells you that you have to deliberately avoid scratching it for three hours, it's immediately going to start itching.
Perhaps I would not have been so frustrated but for three major factors: First, I have been trying to find a part-time job around town, and feel rather urgently pressed to do so. It's very rare for me to be in a situation where I'd rather be looking through job listings online than what I'm actually doing, but this is one of those situations.
Second, I have always spent the majority of my social life online and my relaxation using a computer; I play computer games or watch YouTube as my primary way to enjoy myself and unwind. This is only more dramatically the case now that I am thousands of miles and many time zones away from all my old friends whose company is familiar and comforting to me, so these three hours will neither be time I can spend looking for work in a way I'm able to at this time of day, nor time I can spend relaxing and enjoying myself in the ways I'm accustomed to.
Finally, the experience of being asked to do this feels political to me. It reminds me of people I have heard dismissing "millenials" as cheap, shallow and so addicted to their phones that they can't stand to put them down for ten minutes, and as a result I feel reflexively defensive and as though I am being judged; Not only that, but judged based on a stereotype rather than for my own behaviour.
Information technology is a stratum on which life today is built; some houses no longer have clocks in them because 'everyone' has a mobile phone. Posters and food wrappers do not write out the full details of their message, but have a URL printed on them where further information can be found because 'everyone' has ready access to the internet. Going without these systems for a few hours or even a few weeks is entirely possible and may not even be particularly hard, but if someone is incapable of using them at all, they will be missing out on major advantages and may not be able to keep up with the standard pace and productivity the modern world expects and demands.
For my three hours of techlessness, I wanted to prioritise doing things that I would not normally use an electronic device to do more efficiently. Although I was thinking about what I would write throughout the day, I did not write anything for this blog; writing with paper and pen is slower for me than typing, and I would have needed to type it all out afterwards anyway. Instead, I tidied my bedroom windowsill, did a bit of organising in my room, bathed myself and cooked two different kinds of food: soup and spaghetti. Aside from tidying my windowsill, these were things I might well have done anyway on some other day, but the primary difference is that on another day, I would be listening to something on either my phone or my mp3 player. This might be music, or it might be a podcast of some kind, depending on what I felt like at the time. I care a great deal for the ability to listen to music of my own tastes whenever I want. It adds levity and fun to menial work, and also allows me to drown out things I do not want to be listening to, like a housemate's private phone conversation with a loved one or a barking dog in the neighborhood. Today, I spent three hours with a recurring earworm I wasn't allowed to scratch.
Throughout the day, even before I started the challenge, I was thinking about angry things to say about being assigned to do this. Among them: It is not very difficult to take time away from connectedness if you want to. For some, it's a very relaxing experience to let go of the need to answer to friends or bosses and be informed of every new thing as it happens. Country retreats away are popular for good reason. However, it's a different matter when you're doing it on someone else's command. Any given person has almost certainly at some point, when they weren't thinking about it, gone three hours at a time without scratching their nose, but it's a part of human nature that if someone tells you that you have to deliberately avoid scratching it for three hours, it's immediately going to start itching.
Perhaps I would not have been so frustrated but for three major factors: First, I have been trying to find a part-time job around town, and feel rather urgently pressed to do so. It's very rare for me to be in a situation where I'd rather be looking through job listings online than what I'm actually doing, but this is one of those situations.
Second, I have always spent the majority of my social life online and my relaxation using a computer; I play computer games or watch YouTube as my primary way to enjoy myself and unwind. This is only more dramatically the case now that I am thousands of miles and many time zones away from all my old friends whose company is familiar and comforting to me, so these three hours will neither be time I can spend looking for work in a way I'm able to at this time of day, nor time I can spend relaxing and enjoying myself in the ways I'm accustomed to.
Finally, the experience of being asked to do this feels political to me. It reminds me of people I have heard dismissing "millenials" as cheap, shallow and so addicted to their phones that they can't stand to put them down for ten minutes, and as a result I feel reflexively defensive and as though I am being judged; Not only that, but judged based on a stereotype rather than for my own behaviour.
Information technology is a stratum on which life today is built; some houses no longer have clocks in them because 'everyone' has a mobile phone. Posters and food wrappers do not write out the full details of their message, but have a URL printed on them where further information can be found because 'everyone' has ready access to the internet. Going without these systems for a few hours or even a few weeks is entirely possible and may not even be particularly hard, but if someone is incapable of using them at all, they will be missing out on major advantages and may not be able to keep up with the standard pace and productivity the modern world expects and demands.
For my three hours of techlessness, I wanted to prioritise doing things that I would not normally use an electronic device to do more efficiently. Although I was thinking about what I would write throughout the day, I did not write anything for this blog; writing with paper and pen is slower for me than typing, and I would have needed to type it all out afterwards anyway. Instead, I tidied my bedroom windowsill, did a bit of organising in my room, bathed myself and cooked two different kinds of food: soup and spaghetti. Aside from tidying my windowsill, these were things I might well have done anyway on some other day, but the primary difference is that on another day, I would be listening to something on either my phone or my mp3 player. This might be music, or it might be a podcast of some kind, depending on what I felt like at the time. I care a great deal for the ability to listen to music of my own tastes whenever I want. It adds levity and fun to menial work, and also allows me to drown out things I do not want to be listening to, like a housemate's private phone conversation with a loved one or a barking dog in the neighborhood. Today, I spent three hours with a recurring earworm I wasn't allowed to scratch.
On the other hand, deliberately avoiding the use of electronics and information systems reminded me about a short piece of speculative fiction I want to write, about a disconnect from technology far more integrated and habitual, and vastly more devastating, than this one.
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