Technology Detox… the new diet!

What do you do the first thing you get up. Pick up your phone and check notifications? Na I am not that bad, I hug my daughter.

Now coming to the Indispire topic (on IndiBlogger) of 7 day experiment to be without gadget, well I would miserably fail on the first day. So I let that experiment be for the pros, I have a guest and a fellow blogger Shweta Dave give a funny take on what she calls as “Tech Detox”. Read to know more and enlighten yourself to a gadget free world!

Husband decides to take wife (of course his) out for a beautiful candle light dinner. The Zicom, home security system is switched on through voice activation. They move to the car and the doors open keyless entry. He switches his iPhone 6 plus on and elegantly asks “Hi Siri, where can I take my wife for dinner, preferably Chinese.” Prompt comes options of Chinese restaurants in the most eloquent voice. Meanwhile wife scrolls through her Blackberry checking for mails not a nanosecond of delay in responding to new mails listening to Love Guru on radio.

They reach the place and settle in after a warm welcome. When the food arrives wife picks her Samsung note and runs the app that will count and register the calories she eats and the workout required to burn it. They have a wonderful dinner while checking their respective WhatsApp forwards and also share pictures on Instagram. They check in the restaurant at Foursquare and before leaving also take selfies and tag each other and update their status “Awesome dinner with Wify at The Chinese Restaurant, the sparkling spinach is a must try with a winked smilee!”

All for a wonderful cosy dinner and evening, isn‘t it? They did get a 100 plus likes and many comments from buddies who missed being with them for dinner with one saying Oh I was just next to that place, could have made it if I checked my phone 5 mins back!

Well welcome to the world of a socially active well accepted couple of today! The topic for discussion is an awesome suggestion by VP. While the topic is around sharing ones experience of being away for 7 days, I had to take a different route and approach to it. I have tried doing it myself and it was relatively easy, I successfully managed 4 days as I had many activities gymming, cooking, reading and of course meeting friends in person 🙂 But the 4th day I started getting calls from my parents as I stay in Europe and they were completely not ok with not seeing my messages to them daily. Well on a lighter note it has come to as stage where life is so risky that these updates confirm a person is alive!

So not able to share my experience I would like to share my thoughts on what is called as “Tech Detox”. We humans are great; I recently saw a video which showed how ruthlessly animals are slaughtered in Japan. Then the meat is used to make a lot of pre-processed, canned, and ready to eat meals. Which ends quite hilariously showing an obese man on the operation table being “slaughtered” 😉 for adding a gastric band. There is a similar analogy, you earn, you buy gadgets and the time is not far when you will pay to be offline. Now since this disease is not as widespread as obesity, I have a few tips to salvage the situation.

1. Take a break before you croak! Go to a place with no wifi or cellular connection. Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise to live in a vast country like India and many places with no telecom signal. I wouldn’t mind adding a category on tripadvisor which say tech detox hotels as additional search criteria.
2. If vacation is not your thing or you are too broke to take a bunch of your kids and your nagging wife out with no guarantee of solace then just call your cellular provider and strip out your data plan.
3. Change that smart phone to a basic one. I did that, I switched to the first phone i bought out of my first salary the Nokia 6600 and trust me it was a super experience. Well I also go nostalgic of boyfriends at college but still worth it.
4. Don’t push yourself if Yoga/meditation is not your thing. I have seen elders blowing their lungs out in a laughing club (ma sent my pa to one as she hadn’t seen him smile since my brother was born 😉 ).
5. Keep trying different things portraits, painting, cooking, walks, reading whatever you feel like. Each may last only for a day but trust me something will be interesting to keep you hooked for days.
6. Pick that pen and paper up. I know writing is not everyone’s thing. But you don’t need to be a Kafka or a Stephan King. Just write anything. Your feelings of how is it to be without the gadgets or a letter to your friend abroad or a letter posted to your spouse in the same house. That sounds fun.

Well, after all the gyan, I say this. Like all detox regimes come to an end you need not do this forever. Once you have a good control over your mind you can use your gadgets albeit limited hours a day at least that needs to be a regime 🙂

And mind you YouTube and candy crush saga before sleeping is banned for life 🙂

Happy Tech detoxing!!