Asylum from technology

It's common to hear people complaining about how alienated our society by their phones and the isolation can be: their profiles in social networks, the dependence on technology, the tedium to make any effort to get to know our surroundings. In few words, a rupture of social links. It is undeniable that we communicate through spoken words every day less. But, how much in general are we losing our connection to reality? And how does it affect the social nature of human beings? I am not going to answer these questions, but I put them on the discussion table.

The levels of concentration in a normal task are vastly decreased by the influence of external factors such as internet access, instant messaging apps, etc. The amount of sleep is altered seriously by using our telephones during the night as well. Right before going to the bed, when 5 minutes of chattering can become some hours or a TV show episode can become three or four. After a total balance, we spend enough time in our phones that could be gather and channeled to “productive” activities, effective rest or even exploring one´s self knowledge.

Additionally, the sensation of being permanently connected makes us believe that our surroundings depend on us and if we are not permanently in contact, things out there might not work, or vice versa, how can we function if we don't know what is happening around? What if I miss a plan of my friends? What if I don't read that important message that for sure is waiting for me to be read? The use of our cellphone depends many times on our hopes for something relevant to happen.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to carry out an experiment. As Simple as follows, to stop using the smartphone for one week. That is how it went. I shut it down and saved it in a drawer on Sunday evening and immediately after I felt a bit confused. What should I do know? I asked myself. A recurring question that was easier to solve over the time. 

Regarding to this point, I discovered that many times I fill my "free time" with some sporadic visits to w app or to Facebook, almost as an unconscious reflex. I took my phone and did nothing with it, just held it in my hand as if it was necessary to carry out that break. Sometimes even during a study session or a conversation I looked at my handy pushed by an invisible force to take it, unlock it and explore it around. Does it sound sick? I swear you I am not the only one, I spoke to other friends and they told me about feeling kind of the same. So, somehow, the smartphone was demanding attention ton some parts of our brain, and we subdued. 

So, having gotten rid of that distraction, my study sessions got much more productive, truly continuous and not interrupted by any other means than my will. In consequence, my brain could catch the thread of the topics easily, I could devour entire chapters of books and did not feel that heavy burden at the end of the day, that one that I used to feel during normal days when I used to use my phone the last weeks. Could this have been due to other factors? maybe, but feeling drained out has been a constant in my last month's. The only factor that changed significantly this week was the presence of my smartphone, and this modification it reflected a change in my mood.

During the mornings, after waking up, I felt so vital, filled of energy, cheerful, sparkling, certainly active along the day. 

Another factor I figure out, was that I could remember easier the course of the days. What did I do yesterday and before yesterday? Can you describe your day with detail? Well, as my routine showed a marked continuity and was not permanently bombed with such a huge amount of information every two minutes (10 messages from 4 different people asking or answering about 4 diverse tropics, the email from the university reminding about this and that report, the news from the world, the crisis in Venezuela, Trump speaking bullshit, the bus schedule, and thousand things more), my mind was able to store real packages of facts. And it is incredible how easy the brain can adapt to the absence of phone, in fact, he feels released. Our brain is not multitasking and it appreciates not to be forced to be. 

Critics? Yeah!, they never miss when you are having fun. Specially from people who got mad at me because they could not find me whenever they wanted at w app. Sorry for those incapables of finding other ways to communicate with me or for being their subject of conversation. The last I wanted was to attract their attention. Lass mich in ruhe! (a friend of mine would say). I did not know they depended on me that much. But Andrés, the smartphone is a tool and how can I ask you about something that concerns to us? To this question, let me answer you… my friend, I do not think I am essential for you to take decisions and if I do not take part on them is because I am giving you the power to be autonomous because I consider you can do it very well, I assume my consequences of being absent.

But honestly, important people always found a way to talk to me, and were permanently in contact, through my mail or simply they waited for me to finish the experiment. And about this, there was a revealing finding. I found the capacity to be invisible, unreachable, imperceptible. I underwent through it and was a satisfactory sensation, nobody could not even know where I was, for sure I was in the usual places I use to, but I knew that nobody could actually realize it or ask me. It was like having disappeared, and that perception of insignificance and unimportance may fight against the selfishness lifestyle in our society, where everybody wants to have the spotlight.  

And in this regards I want to add, that I was also able to look around my city, my surroundings, the people in the tram, the complexity of the life in the streets, the interesting mosaic composed by thousands of worlds crossing randomly and colliding tangentially each other. These, just by shutting down the phone. One last thing, not less important than the previous ones was my improvement in the ability to solve simple troubles or questions, which we generally solve immediately by looking up in our apps or by asking someone else through w app. In this case, I had to personally interact with the people in the streets, to the ones who were real and were surrounding me instead of the absent ones. 

The final reflection around this topic, and what I rescue after all is that I do not depend on my smartphone, I increased my mental capacity to save information, to memorize, my recursion to solve daily problems, to perceive my surroundings and understand them, to spend efficiently my free time, to interact with the real world, and even to realize who are the relevant relationships to keep contact with.

The “Technologic Asylum” experiment can be criticized and considered silly. But, further than the fact of stopping using the phone, is a statement against the subordination to machines. It is an invitation to keep the eyes wide open and take the risk to talk loud instead of being silent actors in the streets.

Pd: I apologize because I had so much more things to write in these paragraphs. But today I turned on my smartphone and since then I feel not that brilliant as before.

February 10, 2019

Darmstadt, Germany