Teresa Martin: Using tech to create an unplugged zone - Barnstable Patriot

Teresa Martin: Using tech to create an unplugged zone - Barnstable Patriot

Frequent readers know I spend a lot of time playing with technology tools and topics. This inevitably leads to the question: How do you tech detox?

For years — decades actually — I’ve carved out time to just be in the world. To walk real places, pick up real objects and generally interact with the tangible and touchable. I cook, tackle various hands-on projects, ramble with the pup — you get the picture. Unplugging.

For me there’s nothing like chopping and roasting a mountain of veggies drizzled with olive oil to reconnect to the physical earth, especially when winter winds whip across the bay. I highly recommend a regular exercise like this ... but as 2020 rolled in I realized I needed another strategy for finding balance. So this year I’m taking a rather unusual twist on a New Year’s resolution: I’m using tech to create a quiet space.

At first I stood ready to blame the tools around me. Don’t we all? Blaming the tech takes us down the path of least resistance. A few rants about screen time absolves us from deeper thinking about ourselves.

Thing is, I like my digital toys. My phone stands at the ready to do pretty much every task. It even saved my sorry tail last year when I was, err, running late for work and took a flying trip 'n' tumble, soaring through the air and landing upon a chair whose wooden back acted like a chisel and split bones (mine!) into separate and discrete pieces. My Velcrolike attachment to the phone meant it was literally right there with me — and I could call for help from a sad, immobile sprawl on the floor. Yay, digital devices!

After that, the flexible functions of my iPhone meant that during the subsequent multi-month healing cycle I could conduct most business through my uninjured thumbs, using the keypad and my little T. rex hands. With both arms immobilized and only fingers moving, texting kept me connected, apps let me act — and that digital device made all the difference.

Meanwhile, my trusty laptop turns thoughts into action. I write, plan, sort scenarios by spreadsheet and generally make my business sing from a small lightweight rectangle. Access to broadband lets me interconnect with the world — and lets me do it from the peninsula I love.

Smart lights and plugs mean I don’t walk into a dark house on a cold winter night ... and the smart thermostat lets me make that house a little bit warmer before I get home. The remote car starter gets the ice melting off the windshield and stops me from melting down while pounding away with an ice scraper. Programmable ovens mean a warm dinner, and the sensors in the rice cooker ensure a perfect side to go with it. The meditation app on my phone gives me a much-needed reminder every day at 4 p.m.: Breathe!

I guess what I’m saying is the detox we need might not be from tech, but instead from our own habits. At least that’s the aha moment that led me to add another device ... to yes, address those habits.

Enter the new iPad, but with a twist. You see, when I stepped back and really looked, I saw that my worst habits did not come from using tech or having tech in my life, but from the way I co-opted it to drive those already existing traits. A digital detox doesn’t change those habits — they belonged to me long before a single pixel danced on a screen. But ... what if I could use tech as a tool to counter them?

Confession time. I juggle. I’m the one with seven projects in process and five opened books and little sticky notes all over. Shiny objects tempt me to take off on a tangent. I love reading, but have a dreadful propensity to forget to return library books on time. I run even when I should walk — I mean, how do you think I ended up with two broken arms? That’s right, running in the house!

So, when a new iPad mini entered my world, I decided it would be my quiet place. I’d try using tech to detox from myself.

I controlled the set-up with intent — we too often forget we control our devices and we don’t need to leave them in default marketing mode. I changed those defaults: No notifications. No update messages. No email. Breaking news breaks elsewhere. Nothing pings me on this device. I created a no-work zone, a no-alert zone. I’m using the device as reminder that I can step away from “busy.”

And I do. I step away and use the device to read library books. To read long-form magazine stories. To relax with a silly game. I even play around sketching with the pen ... just for fun. I use it while sitting in one place, maybe stretched on the sofa or relaxed on the floor. My trusty phone takes on a sidecar role, feeding tunes to the speaker and letting music wash across the scene.

No, I’m not tech-free — and I don’t want to be. I just want a place to step away for a few moments, recharge, and enjoy doing things for myself. Ironically, a digital device turned out to be the perfect medium to create an unplugged zone.

Teresa Martin lives, breathes and writes about the intersection of technology, business and humanity. Read more of her recent columns at www.capecodtimes.com/teresamartin.

2020-01-21 07:55:55Z
https://www.barnstablepatriot.com/news/20200120/teresa-martin-using-tech-to-create-unplugged-zone

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