Written on May 19th, 2010 by Brendan

Hold The Phone

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This posting is probably the last thing you would expect to read on the blog of a web design firm…or any blog related to technology for that matter.  It’s a case against technology.  Well, it’s really more of a case against the disruptions in our lives that can occur when technology is allowed to seep slowly into all the cracks in our lives.  I’m talking about all the moments between appointments, in the car, waiting for a friend or sitting on the toilet when we now have a choice between sitting there in boredom or pulling youtube up on an iPhone.  The important thing to remember is that this choice didn’t always exist and I think most people see the advent of this choice as a purely positive development.  Maybe I’m just picky, but I can’t help but think this might not always be a good choice to have – that empty time might not be such a bad thing.  To some that might sound anti-modernist or just really boring, but, in my mind, this posting is not so much anti-technology as it is a case for contemplation and giving the mind a chance to breathe.

The sad irony of writing on a blog about the woes of technology is not lost on me.  Let me be clear, I do not want the internet to disappear.  I don’t want to revert to a time before cell phones and I definitely don’t want LOST, Survivor, Mad Men or Ninja Warrior going anywhere.  Technology and personal media technology, in particular, can be incredibly entertaining and enriching and there are so many parts of my life that are better and more amusing because of it.  That being said (sorry Larry), I have noticed something insidious happening in the land of idle distraction.  A slow and clandestine expansion of typing, talking, watching and reading is moving across our daily lives like the scene in every World War 2 movie of Nazi territory spilling like ink across a map of Europe.  We acquiesced to this expansion not only because we clearly benefitted, but because it followed a relaxed and logical progression – first we were untethered from the desk by the laptop, then a few years later wifi allowed us to roam even further and a few years later 3G networks brought media anywhere we wanted to be.  The only limits to our ability to distract ourselves today are battery life and reception.   Each level of intrusion into our lives was accepted because we had already become fully adjusted to the last push.    It’s almost like having a friend slowly moving his things into your place until one day you wake up and you have a roommate, who doesn’t pay rent.  You like the guy, but you didn’t realize what you were allowing to happen until it was too late and now he’s around constantly.

What’s so bad about distraction?  Nothing about it inherently is.  When a situation is too much to handle, distraction is a great thing.  We can avoid pain and discomfort or give our wearied minds a space to recuperate.  Life without any distraction would be unbearable.  But, I’m not making an argument against distraction in general, I’m just pointing out that perhaps it needs to be balanced out by…not distracting ourselves so much.  Tasks can be divided into two types: heuristic and algorithmic.  Without getting too technical, the difference between them is that with algorithmic tasks you narrow a lot of information down to a little and with a heuristic task you start with nothing or almost nothing and create something of value out of it.  This is relevant because daydreaming is a heuristic process.  Daydreaming and contemplation are the ultimate mental act of creation and there’s one main prerequisite for both: time to burn.

(Part 2 will be coming in just a bit)