I’ve been sick for a week. I’ve spent two days laying in bed, and in the at time I hear the house around me completely alive. The boys are antagonizing and fighting, my wife trying to keep things together when Dad is too ill, even, to stand.
What if this was my last week. It’s not- it was just the flu and I am recovered as I write these words. Mostly, recovered. What did I spend the last week doing? Where did I invest this finite energy and time that I have?
- 3hrs 20min/day iPhone SAFARI Browser
- 2hrs 15min/day Netflix/Disney+
- 1hr 45min/day Chrome Browser
- Audiobooks, podcasts, games…
Staring at the screen, with its 60MHZ refresh rate, has made worse the nausea brought on by a crappy flu. I think that it is called Cyber Sickness, and it is a real affliction resulting from starting at the screen while surfing the net- an unnatural and unhealthy disordering of neural signals, moving images, physical immobility and focus.
That is sickening, and that is not entirely abnormal. My head spins. What could I have done, even if just staring at the wall. I have three boys, and how much of that time, when I should have been interacting with them, was I ignoring them to check on one more tidbit of news.
THE EXPERIMENT
I’m going to stay off the phone, and off the laptop. Basically, I’m staying of the internet, and I’m going to see where that gets me. I will be honest- if I fail, and browse one last thing, I have to own it publicly, on this thread. No one is likely to show much interest in this and that is okay. But, I can give an account of my days to see how I’m doing. I will try to write daily, to show the progress.
There is a transition that I must follow. Here it is:
- Immediate
- Blog daily with writing not to exceed 30minutes per day. That is ALL the online time I allow myself.
- Unlimited use of paper writing, calendering….etc. While I intend to get away from Apps, my big addiction tends to be online news and social media (chimp brain attracted to fearful things, and social standing…grunt, grunt). Nonetheless, any app acts as a gateway to the more addictive parts of the digital siren song, and so it is best to be free of all them. There are other reasons – digital privacy, haptics, costs to consider and discuss later in a future blog post.
- One small, weekly radio dose of CBC World News. See what I’ve missed.
- Stop using browser on iPhone. Stop using Calendar, Contacts, Apple Wallet, Books and YNAB.
- Start using a paper notebook for ToDos.
- Start using a paper calendar for all Calendar events.
- Start using a paper address book for important phone numbers/contacts.
- Start using an old column book for finance/budgeting.
- Start paying cash. No debit or credit… ever again.
- Stop using my eReader.
- Medium Term (3-4 months, or by June 2024)
- Lose the smartphone entirely.
- Cancel all streaming services. Begin using DVDs for any movies worth watching. Reduce family screen time, regardless.
- Begin letter correspondance to close friends.
This is a rough start, and not very well thought out. I have to have a better concept of how to organize my life- this is, in fact, a bit of a knee jerk reaction but I only allow myself 30 minutes to write. Oh, and due to the 30 minute limit:
- This will basically be stream of consciousness. I only have 30 minutes, so… it might not always be gramatically perfect.
Let’s see how this pans out.
Time’s up.