Sure I can give up technology, no problem! I do it all summer, why couldn't I do it for a week during the school year?
However, since that class, I have started further noticing just how much I use electronic devices, especially my phone. Probably the only time when I am consistently not actively looking at a screen is during my few hours of sports practices. Outside of that time, screens are everywhere. I wake up to the alarm on my cell phone, and check my email and twitter before getting out of bed. I play music as a get dressed and packed up for school. My parents have The Today Show on the tv as we all get our breakfasts ready. At school, most classes use computers or the projector, and our homework usually either involves being on the computer, or I check veracross on the computer to figure out what it is. The Nightly News is on the TV when I get home, I do my homework on the computer after dinner, and then watch Netflix. I fall asleep listening to music or a podcast. I've started keeping track of how many times I check/go on my phone on each day. On days where I have free periods at school, its a ridiculous amount.
Looking at all of this, I am realizing just how much of a lifestyle change it would be to give up my ipod, phone, computer, and tv, even just for a week.This somewhat baffles me. Last summer from early June to mid-August I went without my phone or computer or anything, and it felt effortless. However, I was at Widji, on my Widji backpacking trip, and on a family canoe trip during that time. In those environments, it feel incredible natural to not be reliant on technology. Additionally, no one else around me was using those devices, so I really didn't have a sense that I was missing out on anything.
The plain apartment in "Sight"
The electronic "painting"
The main character's electronic awards.
In the video "Sigh", the physical world that the people lived in was very plain, and sparsely decorated. This allowed for the digital world to take center stage, and for the overall lives of the people to not be to visually complicated.
Maybe, one way that it's much easier to for me to go without technology when I am in more natural places is that there is so much to experience in those places. When you take away technology in more urban modern environments, much of the valuable and enjoyable aspects of that environment are taken away.
Google Glass user playing with their dog.
I thought the contrast between "Sight" and the Google Glass ad was interesting in this way. In the Google Glass promotion, Glass helps people further enjoy their natural environment, and implied that they will be even more able to interact with it. The "Sight" technology instead created an entirely new environment and human experience.
Given my experiences being able to give up technology only when I have a certain environment or mindset, this quote seems relevant:
"Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons. It is what we leave behind that is important. I think the matter of simplicity goes further than just food, equipment, and unnecessary gadgets; it goes into the matter of thoughts and objectives as well. When in the wilds, we must not carry our problems with us, or the joy is lost."
--Sigurd Olson
Sela- Your own recognition of interdependence given your passion for the wilderness stands our here. And I share your sense of disgust at the number of times you check the phone. Email, too, for that matter. What would be reasonable? Four times a day? Seems sufficient no? But of course friends would get mad saying you're ignoring them. If feels like we need boundaries as we can't seem to set any ourselves. The jump to "Sight" and the Google ad seem abrupt here, and I don't quite follow the connection. The quote is an excellent conclusion, however. But is that simplicity reserved for the back country?
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