One Day without Big Tech: Execution

I finally did my day without tech on May 31, three weeks late than originally planned.

Why Is It so Late

Ironically, the impossibility to do it earlier demonstrates how dependent I am.

During the week, I had to at least have my phone turned on (in theory I can turn it off, but the idea of turning off the work phone on business days drives me crazy). Probably I can turn off all notifications and choose not to open any apps, and use it purely as a “phone”, but I don’t even trust myself to overcome the temptation. And as I work in tech, I rely on tech to conduct my day job. Aside from work, there’s nothing that can’t wait for at least a day even during the week. (It’s worth another post, but from now on I’ll never use the work phone for any personal matter, and it is essential for work life separation.)

The weekends were full of activities, both planned and out of surprise. I was waiting for test results of my kitten’s potential fungal infection on the weekend of 05/08 (Ironically, the doctor left us a message on 05/09 afternoon, and as I called back, she already left office. So I only got in touch with her the Monday afterwards. In other words, it made no difference if I simply turned off my phone that weekend.) I purchased a new iPhone on the weekend of 05/15, and I couldn’t procrastinate any longer as I was to return the work phone the week afterwards. But even if I bought the phone earlier and conducted the experiment that weekend, it would have been disrupted because of kitchen flooding and the need to contact emergency. Not to mention it’s Google Code Jam weekend. The weekend of 05/22 would have been possible, but it’s my first weekend after leaving the job, so let me take a break.

The weekdays of 05/24 were busier even though I was without a job. Meeting with contractors, dental (after a whole year of the pandemic), insurance related (and this revealed how working at big tech can create a bubble and comfort zone). Then it came to the weekend, but there was another vet appointment. So here it came 05/31, memorial day and last day of May. I didn’t want to wait until June, so I forced myself to abandon all excuses.

Some thoughts:

• The fact that you can connect at all times, makes you feel you should. It’s not even expectations from others.
• Ideally, I should separate the phone and “phone-sized tablet”. Wait, but doesn’t that just defeat the purpose of smart phone?
• Compared with laptop, the phone is more distracting. I’ll think and read more, but maybe because sitting in front of a desk is some kind of a ritual, while picking up a phone is so careless. And the attention economy.

Preparation

It’s not as much as I would have expected. I just searched the route to some place I needed to go, checked emails, and had a video chat with my family. This just showed how little is essential.

Actual Experiment

I turned off the iPhone and iPad right before sleep.

I was a bit worried about unread messages throughout the period, but it’s easy to overcome.

I drove to the place without Google Map navigation. (It’s a skill I should practice more.)

I picked up the phone several times from muscle memory and stared at the dark screen, and just put it back and felt lucky I turned it fully off. And I almost clicked some website in the frequent site list, but luckily resisted the temptation.

Meanwhile, I tried some big tech alternatives, more specifically, this translation tool. Unfortunately, the quality is nowhere close to Google Translation. It’s probably a conundrum, that the quality of a product depends on the amount of data it collects. So what we need is more transparency and control (and things like GDPR and CPAA).

I gave my kitten a shower in the afternoon and accompanied her while she was air drying to treat the infection. This could have been a perfect excuse to put off the experiment, as I need to “have fun” (like Reddit and YouTube). But I was surprised to find that it’s still possible to read some books and magazines in that environment (bathroom filled with sulfur smell with the fan on). And doing so is less mentally exhaustive, as I could still work on my side project in the evening (and partly because I couldn’t access easy “fun” too).

And I listened to some music and watched some video locally. With YouTube and Spotify, it’s so easy just to ignore those and let “algorithms” decide what to consume and surrender to all the addictive designs.

Final Thoughts

The experiment gave me some insights. But knowing it’s only a day, it’s easy to anticipate/prepare and less stressful. I’ll try it in a more radical way (a whole weekend or a whole week with only essentials) later.