CCC An Hour of Disconnect Discussion

So far we’ve focused on a lot of information on how technology has benefited us as well as how it can be used to hurt us. I thought we would take this time to explore the lack of technology. We spend a lot of time on it, but are we really mindful of how we use it and how it interrupts our time. Our time and attention has become a commodity on social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter and time is the only thing you cannot buy.

Tristan Harris talks about this quite a bit in this Ted Talk.

 

He also discusses this quite a bit in the Social Dilemma movie on Netflix. So if anybody hasn’t watched this, I highly encourage you to watch it.

For this assignment for that hour or any hour you have this week. Turn off technology. Turn off your phone, your laptop, whatever keeps you connected for one hour, 60 minutes. And do something else, bake something, or take a walk, go for a drive somewhere, do some art, have a conversation with someone, read a book/magazine, something without using the internet/phone, laptop or electronic device. And then post what you did, feel free to include pictures (this you can turn your phone on for to take a picture, but then turn it off).

After your one hour free from tech, do you agree with Tristan?

Were you able to make it for an hour?

Do you think we focus on too much of our time using technology? What are the benefits, what are the consequences? 

 2 students to respond to: 

Student #1

From 3:45 to 4:49 this afternoon I stepped away from technology. During this time I did some self-care and played my bass guitar (with no accompanying music as I normally would do). It felt nice to be away from my devices but at the same time, I caught myself thinking “How much time is left?” because I wanted to go back to it. I know I need to work on myself in this aspect, but it’s so tough when the majority of the things I do involve my phone or computer. In his TED talk, Tristan Harris describes the constant checking of notifications or mindlessly scrolling as “time slipping away” from him, a sentiment that I agree with. Playing a game or checking a random app on my phone whenever I have downtime has become a bad habit of mine, and I feel that sense of time slipping away when I do those things. Despite my struggles, I’ve always been concerned with getting things done and staying productive. I tend to make things work with a balance of sorts between my two mindsets but I know I need to be better. A benefit to being online a lot is that I can stay updated on the latest news, whether it’s with sports or general world events. I also can be more digitally connected with my friends, whom I will text often. A consequence of being online a lot is that we are slowly losing touch with reality. It creates such a rush of dopamine and instant gratification that we only want more of it. I will try my best to stay sane in this failing society.

Student #2

In spending an hour without any technology was actually pretty easy for me but it made me realize how much I depend of technology for stimulation or background noise. During my hour I did a little bit of painting and playing guitar which are both completely offline activities I enjoy on a regular basis. However, I almost always have music, podcast, or some kind of noise in the background during these activities to fill the quiet air. Not doing this made me realize how quiet it got when I’m not constantly allowed to access music or videos on the phone or computer. This experiment made me realize that I maybe depend too much on technology for stimulation even when it’s not my primary focus and that I should probably work on these offline hobbies more often. I was pretty easily able to make the hour but the takeaway was still interesting.

In terms of focusing too much of our time of technology, I feel like I may be slightly better off than most people during the day as I don’t really interact with social media much if at all so I’m never really bombarded with notifications or updates outside of the occasional call or text message. I think this helps because I’m able to focus more during my work or school activities and my attention isn’t drawn away as much. However, technology definitely becomes a distraction during my off time as I tend to indulge more in video games or movies when I have free time when there are probably better uses of my time. All in all I think I have a pretty good balance but I could probably be using my free time a bit more efficiently.