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How Long Could You Live Without Your Gadgets?
DruCipher writes "CNet.co.uk is running a very funny article about Andrew Lim, the resident mobile phone reviewer, trying to live without all his favorite gadgets. The article sees Andrew try to survive without a mobile phone, a computer, an MP3 player and a TV. At the end of his technology detox he feels more relaxed without all his gadgets but cracks after a few days, 'Like all proper detoxes, though, my zen-like calm didn't last for long. Once I'd finished my gadget starvation, I was straight back to the tech binging. A remote control gun you say? Yes please!'"
...For all of these gadgets we carry around with us. I have several belt-clips already, might as well wear a "pistol-belt" with military-style pouches for all of these things.
Once an nerd, always a nerd. The return to high tech shows that once you get a taste of high tech and live it, you cannot stop. While the relaxation and peace were good for Andy, as it is for us all, high tech is our way of life, period. Though, just to gain some inner peace, I would recommend this plan to anyone who is stressed out. My college professor is reading this, and seems to like the idea as well.
Three days, at most.
Then I get fired for not doing my job.
MP3 player and laptop only when they take them from [Charlton Heston Voice] MY COLD, DEAD, HANDS! [/Charlton Heston Voice] :-)
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
... considering all pain and suffering.
Somehow this article reminds me of this story.
I have a great long term memory for facts, figures and technical specifications, but I can't remember phone numbers, names, or appointments to save my life. You'd think an appointment book would work, but I don't remember to actually look at the damn thing, so I need it to beep at me to remind m of what shit is going on in my life. If I was living alone, I'd literally collapse without my Treo. I got a Handspring Visor soon after my first job out of college to remember all this stuff.
My G4 Mac hasn't been good enough to play any new games that have come out for over a year, I don't have cable, and my treo has email capability and reasonable web searching capability.
As a bonus, I have all my important music on my Treo SD card.
Everything revolves around my Treo. Soon, it will revolve around my iPhone.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
A couple months ago I disconnected my cable modem service with Comcast. They were fast, but down as much as they were up. I missed it the first few days.. No longer could pull down Linux ISOs in an hour. No longer could stream last weeks BSG episodes. But I got by.
Then my DSL went south. I lost pretty much all connectivity to the Internet. They finally fixed it, but at half the previous speed. It was barely enough for me to serve up my web pages.
My mail server had some problems recently. I had to rebuild the hard drive and drop it back to a backup machine. Had some backups, but was too busy (ok, lazy) to restore. Didn't feel like reconfiguring the webmail frontend in any case. So I started pushing some of the domain up to a hosting facility.
I started using dialup internet because the DSL was just horrid. That wasn't as bad as it sounds, but the hosting site didn't support IMAP, only POP3 because they didn't want to store mail. It was easier to use a command line client in any case.
That worked for a while, but it was still slow. So I had my buddy set up a box with direct modem dial up access. I set up a SLIP connection and could then pull my mail faster. I ditched Pine for the mail utility since it was faster.
But why have SLIP when I could just drop a modem directly to a console? It eliminated about 8% overhead in packet traffic in any case.
Heck, why stop there. I could set up a UUCP connection to another machine and really move mail quickly via serial modem. If I strip HTML attachments and just go with standard mail it'll fly.
Heck, the mail envelope is WAY too much overhead. I should strip that too...
We'll see how it goes...
I wonder if the BIX account is still active?
Is a dialysis machine considered a gadget?
in terms of productivity. Yes, a cell phone as a cell phone can be nice, but the millions of hard-to-use features on them don't cut it. Same with me goes for PDAs and other such electronic organizers.
This is not to say other people won't find them useful nor that there are a lack of gadgets that are truly useful (GPS navigation is indeed nice) but rather the lack of integration, seamless transparency and/or AI in these gadgets that currently only let the already organized and motivated stay organized. It's not as bad as some truly useless products of the 80s/early 90s I remember my dad having, using for a week, and then letting it sit around for me to discover.
I think google with gmail or Apple with the iPhone are headed finally in the right direction, after all these years. But I have greater hope that a color, high-res E-reader will reduce my bookshelf down to one tablet (next big gadget) than having a truly useful, automated PDA which really fits the bill of being a Personal Digital ASSISTANT rather than me being a slave to it.
I have an artificial heart, you insensitive clod!
-- Will program for bandwidth
I gave up drinkin', smokin', bloggin', and sex... .. and it was the WORST 20 minutes OF MY LIFE!!!!
Guess which one I do most?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I only use one gadget, an old black-and-white-screen iPod, and only had a desktop computer until a couple of days ago. I only really use the MP3 player in the car. However, that doesn't preclude me from gadgetism. I'm a software gadget freak. If I don't have my iTunes hotkey control, my app launcher (Quicksilver), my Gmail checker, and my virtual desktops (VirtueDesktops), I'm much less happy, as I learned after getting this shiny new Macbook Pro. It also goes for audio plugins. If I don't have 8 extra synthesizers that I never use, I feel limited.
Is the computer really a "gadget" anymore? Laptops, perhaps, and handhelds most certainly, but the desktop computer is a pretty integral part of my household - "gadget", to me, is something that's fun but more interesting than necessary. It's possible it's all in the eye of the beholder, but my desktop (and more importantly, internet access) is just about as important as any other utility in my house.
Only a computer, a television set /stereo, DVD player and camcorder? You're a saint, we should all aspire to be like you.
I don't know, perhaps there is a gadget that can tell me how long I would live without my gadgets.
For myself, I have gone months at a time without a cellphone, TV, computer, or portable music player. I didn't miss them much. This wasn't in the distant past, either, this is several times over the last decade. The key to this was the simple fact that I was well away from the hustle and bustle of my usual life. I was not at my everyday tech job, nor at my heavily tech-invested college, nor even in a major city. For portions of this time I was at a large ranch in the southwest U.S., where the main means of communication was CB radio; in a foreign country that was not heavily modernized; and on a boat skirting oceanic coastline. I didn't miss the tech because there was no real need for it - it would have seemed quite out of place, actually.
I have in recent times, and in my usual techie world, tried to do without a lot of modern gadgetry. By and large, though, it is hard to simply set aside. I am a practicing engineer doing a lot of mechanical design work - I simply could not do my work without a computer. I call up datasheets and other reference information hourly from the Internet. I do not have a landline, and so rely on my cellphone. I type much faster than I write longhand, so I usually email my long-distance friends and relatives instead of sending letters.
I have made some concessions to toning down my digital life. I don't find cable television to be worth the exhorbitant rates they charge, and broadcast TV is filled with a lot of vacuous crap, so I watch about 2 hours of TV a week. My iPod just died; I am waiting to see how the iPhone pans out, or whether Apple will release a 6th-gen iPod this year. Very few people have my cell #, so I receive about 20 calls per week on it; rarely is anything urgent enough that a landline and answering machine couldn't have handled it.
So, I guess one could say that the context matters in how successfully you can ween yourself from technology. Some lifestyles and work-styles have been enabled by modern gadgetry, and simply couldn't exist without it. In other contexts, the gadgetry is superfluous, a sort of reverse anachronism, if you will.
I once spent a summer (ok, a month) in Yorkshire with the SO, a pile of books and a German Shepherd for company. We did a lots of long walks, and I never felt the need for any gadgets whatsoever (we did have a portable CD player, though, and I checked my email twice that month when I was in town).
You really don't need digg, Slashdot, or the usually IT industry inanity fed intravenously to you 24x7. Like Taleb said his book, Fooled by Randomness, most up-to-the-minute information is just noise.
Go somewhere random
indefinitely.
when i go on vacation the first 12 hours i have to adjust to not having news/info instantly available--but after that i'm fine and a good book (or stack of good books) can easilly take the place of internets for leisure.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
... if properly motivated.
:)
I have decommissioned my Palm Pilot and MP3 player. I don't answer half the calls I get on my cell phone. I watch less than 1 hour of TV a day, and am thinking of getting rid of it. I run Gentoo on my laptop, but I spend less than five minutes a week administering it, saving any work for major upgrades.
I got to this place by realizing that screwing with this crap is boring. I have better things to do, involving some worthwhile project that will give greater returns in the future. For example, I have continued to improve my motorcycling skills, and have made some long scenic trips, with more planned. And, my work has improved and become less stressful with greater focus.
So find something better to do, perhaps with more depth than a zoetrope or pigeon training
Boy, nothing says technology detox like a 10-page ad-laden web article complete with digital pictures. It's like an alcohol rehab center with an open wet bar.
Well, I wasn't counting the digital alarm clock beside my bed...
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
or at least that was they said in Fight Club.
;-) I have fun with computers for playing music, for documenting / advancing personal projects, communicating with friends and relatives, etc. I hear you say (or is this myself?) that we all need balance. I already play outside on a mostly daily basis... but what happens when gadgets are the hub of your life? What's the point of starting new hobbies (woodworking?) if my most dear personal projects require gadgets and computers? Have I become a pseudo-slave of gadgets.
:-)
This is a dear subject to me; we have no TV, no car, no microwave, no dishwasher, only one cell phone (my wife needs it for her job), etc. The minimal amount of "gadgets". Since things we own require attention. Requiring attention is not necessarily a bad thing, but you don't chose the time when your hard disk will fail and you'll need to take care of another hardware-related issue.
The main thing left is computers. We have three. I really want to spend less time in front of computers (especially since my day job requires me to be in front of one most of my work time), but the problem (challenge?) is that a lot of my hobbies / dreams / projects are tied to computers. (change computers in the last sentence for your favorite gadget so that I'm not too off-topic
Having no TV (for the last 8 years and we don't miss it at all) makes sure I'm not hypnotized by it, however, computers and Internet (/. anyone?) succeeds in swallowing me way too often...
Ah.... challenges of a life surrounded by gadgetry...
Animoog.org
But now, my mind no longer remembers phone numbers, even ones that I call on a regular basis. I can always just look up numbers, so there is no reason to remember them.
It used to be no problem to memorize stuff. In fact, I was extremely good at it. But now that my computer remembers everything for me, I find that my own memory has gotten very poor. It would probably take quite a while to adapt to not having it.
The only times I've really gone without technology recently were on vacations. It is definitely relaxing, but part of that could be the vacation and place itself, not just freedom from technology. There isn't really much that stressful going on, or a need to memorize much of anything.
I no longer have a TV. I had one for awhile, but found that there are more interesting ways to spend time, like dating women for example. I have ADSL, which is not quite as fast as that 10 gig network I got used to at one point, but it still lets me work effectively from home, and keep up with party invitations. But when I'm up at the island I do completely without, for weeks at a time, until the boat comes to take me back to the mainland.
I have a cell phone, which is handy when I want it, for example when I'm alone on the island running a chainsaw or something, but it usually stays in its charging cradle where it won't intrude on my life. Before cell phones came along I did without that as well. We have a community radiophone down by the dock and in the old days it was either that, when it worked, or wait a day or two for a boat to come along.
I found that degree of isolation scary for the first few years, but also inexpressibly delicious, far more deeply rewarding than playing with some new techno toy. I already get plenty of technology at work, and I approach its use, I suppose, with a certain amount of professional reserve, knowing that nine out of every ten hot new technologies are going to be forgotten within five years anyway.
Want to invest attention in something worthwhile? How about spending time with your friends? Yes, there's more to friendship than showing off your toys.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
A couple summers back, I moved into an apartment with no internet and no tv. I had no job, and my laptop's screen was broken.
It was the best summer of my life: I learned how to cook, read, play piano, build stuff, and take leisurely walks and bike rides.
(Incidentally, one of the books I read was Carl Honoré's book "In Praise of Slow", which is very appropriate to this topic!)
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
I was forced to live without my gadgets for a while back in 2003 when hurricane Juan knocked out the power for 2 weeks... and it really.. really sucked.
I have always accepted that I'm obsessed with technology (a programmer by trade, it kind of comes with the business).. but it didn't occur to me that I'm literally addicted. Reflecting, I realized that I rely on some form of technology for almost all sources of entertainment. The first few days were not all that bad, in fact, they were kind of interesting. The storm had not done any damage to our house, we had plenty of food, it was just like an extended blackout. But then boredom set in, and within a week I was going out of my mind.
It didn't help that the electric company played games with our minds. They came by about a week and a half in and fixed the power on ONE HALF (not the half we live on) of our street. Turns out we are actually fed by a different set of lines. I'm out there talking with my neighbors, and we're like... "there coming back right... RIGHT??!!??!!".
But do I think theres a problem with any of this? No, not really. I'll admit, if someone dropped me off on some deserted island, I probably wouldn't last long. But I don`t really think dependence on technology is a problem... as long as one insures he always has an adequate supply *pats generator*.
what, no towel? Heaven forbid!!
Now, if that makes sense to anyone, could you please explain it to me? I think I've confused myself.
You can get a humble little MP3 player for $25 or less. You can get a cut rate laptop for $200 that can at least look at a couple web pages and post a blog, and swap tunes from your $25 MP3 player.
If you want a PDA, get one. I have zero use for them, but Your Gadget Enjoyment May Vary. (YGEMV).
The personal cost to being poor is being humble. Take an hour to realize you won't win a SINGLE "your gadget vs. mine" discussion. Then you can just relax and still share the *activities* related to gadget. You can bemoan your latest baseball team's woes
American society includes some social cues that can make it tricky to observe others with money decking themselves out in the best. Just enjoy watching them as "someone showing what can be done". I specialized in books because I was poor for many years. Total cost of an O. Henry/Maupassant/Saki discussion: $25 or less. Total entertainment hours: 25. (If you read each volume twice to compare some details. O. Henry is the most upbeat of the three. The other two might bite.)
Regards,
TaoPhoenix
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Seriously. I never get the point of these kinds of articles. "Could you go without air conditioning?" Yes, I'd be hot. "Can you live without pens." Oh no, time for a pencil. The point they're trying to make always seems to be somewhat muddied by a rather obvious glorification of tool A as something other than a way to produce effect B. As if there was ever any obsession with the tool other than as a means of getting to that end. I don't care one bit about my heart, for example. What I do care about, is getting the blood moved, handled, and distributed correctly around my body. I don't care about the pen or pencil, I care about getting information laid out on an easily distributable and reproducible medium. Could I shut the internet off, isolating me from the news and opinions of the rest of the planet, aside from a handful of friends and family who probably agree with me on most things and share the same biases and preconceptions which arise from being a part of any particular social and geographical location? Sure, but a better question would be to ask why that might or might not be a good thing.
Until June 29, 2007 at 6pm! Shortly after that, I'd start to die.
I've enjoyed reading everyones' comments.
I was homeless for a while. I learned a lot about what was important during those few weeks. I also had piles of bills to pay. I found a job, got a cheap apartment, paid off my bills, got married, went back to school, lived happily ever after, etc. When you've gone through building your life from *nothing*, you simply don't care what comes your way because you already know you can get through *anything* let alone the stupid gadgets.
As a result I tend to focus on things that improve myself, things that can never be taken away no matter what circumstances come my way. I don't play computer games because I see no self improvement there. I *feel* guilty because I'm not getting the most I can out of life. I see computer games as checking out and not facing reality. I've never seen someone become a better person because they played computer games or coveted gadgets. But I've seen things like computer games ruin marriages.
I don't invest in gadgets because they don't tend to produce a better person. Indulging in simple pleasures improves the soul. I'm a developer so I work on computers all day. I administer Linux servers at home and I write code for pleasure. I like these things because they improve my mind and help others.
If I wasn't married, I would throw my cell phone in the nearest gutter. If I didn't need to answer to a family I would stop cable TV because I hardly ever watch it. I would be a teacher in Mathematics and Physics or something if I didn't need to support a house. But I've made compromises because my family and my wife have brought so *much* joy to me. And that's a fair trade.
I think the discussion would have been more meaningful if it was more along the lines of "What compromises have you made in life because of putting resources towards worthless gadgets?" Or how about "Do gadgets take away from enjoying life and getting the most you can out of everyday?"
I love technology for what it can enhance, but I try not to let it *ever* be the focus of my life. It's a tool to accomplish other things like engaging in thoughtful musings on Slashdot. I've learned a lot about other people's thoughts and opinions by reading Slashdot and other such sites. It *enhances* my life because it allows me to hold up my thoughts to the scrutiny of others and allows me to learn more about myself when objective criticism comes my way.
Gadgets should never be a focus. People, family and friends should be the focus. Only gadgets that help those objectives like my cell phone for talking to my wife are worth the hassle.
Fresh horses and more whiskey for my men.
dude, it's easy to be philosophical when you OWN A FUCKING PORSCHE
A towel is not a gadget. It can be classified as tool, weapon, clothing, beading, form of identification, or even a religious emblem. But it is not, nor ever will be a 'gadget'.
We are the Borg...
"You are not your fucking khakis."
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
You CAN just use technology without drooling over it. You don't have to be able to "rattle off each and every model of Intel and AMD CPU and their corresponding motherboard sockets" to appreciate the usefulness of certain devices. The reason I posted the comment is that I noticed that of all the people I know, only the real geeks have a strong aversion to mobile phones. I think this is because when you carry it with you it can go off and you might have to talk to someone. Most real geeks/nerd are not very good at social talk. It took me quite some effort to convince one of them to take a mobile phone with him when on his motorbike, to be able to call someone in the case of an accident. My argument of the phone being a safety device was crucial in convincing him. Also the fact that you don't HAVE to pick it up when it rings was an eye-opener for him.
-- Cheers!
I remember a history about dutch chess player Jan Timman. He liked a lot going out, have a drink, meet girls --who doesn't!-- but once he had to face a very important tournament. So he decided to retire to train in a place without any distraction, far away from the nearest bar, just to study chess. Then the tournament started and Timman lost his first three games. So he went back to a more bustling place. Started going out again, drinking each night and meeting girls. He recovered his strenght and won the rest of his games.
So, each one has her own zen. If you can live without gadgets, go for it. If you need them, have them always at hand. In my case I think I couldn't live without portable music players or without a laptop, but sure I could live without a mobile phone. Call me strange guy!
linuxav
I own an older Porsche and I'm sure as hell not rich. Am I allowed to be philosophical? When people ask me how much I paid for it I say. it was either this or half of a stripped a Toyota Camry.
Self awareness - try it!
Some of us are outdoorsy nerds who like to go for days with the bare minumum of stuff on purpose. Sure we may wear modern materials, boots, tent, etc but it is still just a shirt, boots, and tent in the end. I leave the toys at home and don't miss them.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning