I don’t own a cell phone; I could probably barely text to save my life. We don’t have cable. I have no idea what the shows are that people talk about watching and could be called despicably ignorant of daily news and current events. Heck, I barely even know how to use the remote control that works the TV we were given by our neighbor. If it’s actually important, news reaches me somehow. I don’t check email daily, sometimes not weekly. It’s not that I’m being mindless or forgetful. I just plain object to the idea of my life being obligated to connecting with a device in order to be living “properly.”
These are intentional choices I make. I’m not sliding off the backside of the modern age because I can’t keep up. Rather, I don’t value keeping up with a way of life when so much is lost in the process of living it. Character traits like patience, hard work, endurance, community, and creativity have been usurped by device-related impatience, ease, a craving for instant everything, disconnectedness to humans in the flesh, and incredible brains dumbed down by brainless entertainment.
I love the present moment. I don’t live for the future or dwell on the past. I don’t use coffee or alcohol or technology for stimuli to get going or intermittent dopamine drips to “get through” a day. I want to absorb what each day has for me rather than move to the next one until I’m dead and regretful.
I stop and converse with people for as long as they have something to say – listen and people will tell you amazing life stories. I have ideas of what I might “do” each day, but I’m always keen to drop all of them when life tells me to “be.” The moment money factors into what I’m doing, I like it a little less. Some of the best experiences in my life aren’t linked to income. Like this blog. Or time spent in nature or the garden. Or parenting the human beings we were given. How I deeply enjoy a sleeping doggy on my lap, a warm fire and a fascinating life story, and especially snuggling next to my children at bedtime.
These days, some of the deepest and most important things are seen as idle; dull; unentertaining. Anything that takes time is even a burden – the basic things of pondering, conversing, resting. On the contrary, if I go a day without having quiet thinking time, I’m a little more rattled the next and a little less able to quiet myself. If I go without time in nature, I feel cheated. And life without quality time with the people I love is downright meaningless.
For the past 15 years, I’ve walked roads silently. Early on, I was pushing joggers with sleeping babies. Now, I’m meandering solo down peaceful country roads and crossing streams with eagles soaring above me and forest owls catching my glimpse. I used to have an hour or two before a child awakened. Now I have the whole day if I want, this being their first year both in school.
I used to bring a book along with me for the times when my own thoughts felt repetitive. I read dozens of books while walking briskly. Probably due to that, I wear reading glasses now, which seems a little too early considering the ages my family members began needing theirs. I marvel at the tiny type I read while walking with books like The Boys in the Boat. It looks like pure fuzz now to my naked eye.
When our kids were really young, I competed in some walking races and won two iPods two years in a row. I gave them away. I chose to read books rather than to listen to books on my walks because I valued being entirely present. I wanted to hear every bird’s song and every breaking twig. I wanted to hear the wind through the trees and be aware of the thoughts that lone peace put into me.
Because of my changed eyesight, walking over the course of this past winter gradually became a chore rather than a joy. Winter here means perma-blankets of gray blocking the sun from our lives. Walking in that same tone of gray every day without new books full of thoughts to educate me became a little less interesting each time.
Five days ago, I gave in to modern technology in order to listen to my first audiobook while walking, fittingly called The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology by Mark Boyle. (I’ve listened to hundreds of audio books at home with our kids; just never when I’m out in the world.) I bought our son’s old iPod and my husband, who has now listened to 132 audiobooks while bike-riding every day, downloaded several of the ones he liked and still has onto my new device (the others are Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan and Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker).
How I resonate with this book. The author, an Irishman who gave up money for three years, decided to give up technology in order to learn the lessons life offers from simple living. I can’t claim I know this way. We have a car, I cling to the heaters in our house, I love hot showers, and I buy food that comes wrapped in plastic. Nonetheless, his lilting, sensuous account of life lived close to nature and far from the modern instantaneous temptations of immediate gratification is something I look forward to hearing more and more of with each new day’s walk.
Listening to this account has shown me that I was slowly beginning to succomb to the lie I didn’t want to believe – that modern life makes it impossible to live without money and certain types of technologies. It is somewhat revolutionary for me to hear about a person who has experienced life outside of technology. Outside of money. Outside of all of the fabricated “necessities” begging to be used.
I, too, have felt inklings of getting rid of certain mindsets. Getting rid of my computer. Tossing the idea of money determining the meaningfulness or relevance of work I love to do.
Without further ado, I think I’ll quiet down and let the book talk for itself. The audio version is available for downloading through our local library. You will love the unjudgmental beauty in his words. The simplicity. The sentences you’ll want to write down in your journal. And if you get the audio version, the narrator’s lovely Irish accent, calming and lyrical.
I won’t be surprised when many clamber for this way of life in the overly mechanized years to come…
Your description of your daily life sounds peaceful and fulfilling for you. But the part I find troublesome is not knowing about current events. With the destruction of our democracy continuing daily, deliberately remaining ignorant is helping that process along. You peace may be at the price of the lives of your neighbors and your nation.
You’re correct. The ignorance part of it isn’t something I’m proud of or recommend to others, though I tune in at times that I think are critical.
It’s a shame that having access to information in the palm of your hand has been reduced to “Character traits like patience, hard work, endurance, community, and creativity have been usurped by device-related impatience, ease, a craving for instant everything, disconnectedness to humans in the flesh, and incredible brains dumbed down by brainless entertainment.”
My response would be, “Maybe you are using it wrong.”
It is just a tool. A wonderful tool.
To me, your thoughts are like saying “The satellite system that we developed to connect the world is such a waste, and I don’t need it, because people watch too much Netflix”.
Fine. Most of us can see benefits to having the satellite system, but suit yourself.
I’m so grateful to be living in a society where I can choose what goes into my mind.
The ability to listen to podcasts through my phone while I work has changed my life, but yes, other people use the same technology to let the Fox Entertainment channel wash over them constantly, infecting their brains with an alternate reality.
That doesn’t make me want to dismantle the broadcasting system.
Make better choices.!
Anyway, congratulations on your bravery for listening to an Audiobook for the first time! I hope “giving in to modern technology” hasn’t done any permanent damage…
I feel more than strongly about the fact that modern technology/devices are overused for entertaining dope drips and underused as the tools they could be (and are being by the ones using them). For the people using technology with all its potential, wonderful. But I see more than a lot of wasted time. I watch a lot of kids. I see a lot of minds wasted. We have struggles in our own family unlike anything we’ve ever had due to technology use over mind-numbing, neuron-shaping habits instead of usage as a phenomenal tool. And we have boys who love to build, create, dream up, and assemble. I feel fierce about maintaining their brains in the ways that are important, rather than allowing them to accept the pull for ease, instant interest, and nothingness. It’s easier to play Clash of Clans than to search for engineering contests out there when you feel you lack the tools to make the things adults get to make. Evan has yearned his whole life since the age of 4 to be using his brain and hands to do real-world things. If those real-world things aren’t ever seeming to be accessible, even now in his teens, it feels like a lifetime away that they ever will be, so he feels idle; useless at times. He hates being idle and useless. The pull to feed that idleness with “something” to do is strong. He wants and needs technical school. Kids his age in our culture have nothing to do even though their brains are ready and capable of doing massive things. I, on the other hand, am a different story. I choose not to be on stuff because I love being. Seeing. Observing. Feeling. Hearing. Smelling. Watching. That’s me. I don’t need to add a lot to my life to feel satiated. And I think a lot of that is being lost. Critique as you wish, as I critique what I wish. I’ve just come out of 14 years of momming/homeschooling/whatever-terming-you-may-call-it. It was intense. It was wholly sacrificial. That’s how I chose it to be. Fully immersed. Fully present. Fully attentive. I gave all of me to other people. That’s probably why I appreciate all the more the air to breathe. Some flowers to smell. Some hail to walk in. Freedom from the tether of technology makes me feel unencumbered and independent, and the natural world feeds me in so many ways. Yes, technology is incredible. If someone could figure out how to give my son the tech he needs to be fully immersed in creating new technologies, with the tools he needs, PLEASE DO! There’s only so long he can read about it, build it with what he has, watch endless YouTube videos about it, and yearn to be a part of it with no actualizing in sight. He is a brilliant mind made for the future, and I’ll fight all the crap along the way to keep him ready for it when it finally opens its doors to him. And when it happens, and he’s involved in it, I will be right there supporting him.
Hi Edee
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I think I came on a little too strong with my comment. It seemed like some heavy reasoning to justify listening to an audiobook, and I have heard you rail against “wasting time” more than once.
But I really meant it when I said, “Suit Yourself”. I didn’t mean it in a sarcastic way AT ALL. I believe we only get one life in this world, and we should be grateful that we were born into a society where we can choose what we want for ourselves.
My secondary consideration would be for children that are brought up only hearing about the evils of technology, and being prevented from taking advantage of them. But I know your children are luckier than most, and are blessed with parents who have the time and will and resources to fill their time with meaningful experiences. Most people don’t , and I am really proud of you for your dedication to your family and the thoughtful use of your time.
I love you, sis!
I always like to hear people’s thoughts, especially yours or someone else’s in our family. I value them; I ruminate on them; I stew on them. I don’t like to hurt feelings, I don’t care to be a foolishly or stubbornly obtuse person, and I always want to grow in areas that I need growth. Perhaps my writing in a post like this communicates just the opposite? I don’t know. What I wrote really rubbed you the wrong way, and I thought a lot about it quite heavily. I never set out to be negative or make this blog into one big outlet for my opinions. But now and then I insert the things that I have in me, and I usually do that whether they jibe with other people’s. Sometimes I feel the need to express thoughts when they are against the grain. Perhaps I am a freak of this generation, but it’s not as though we go out and study leaf structures or types of conifers with all of our family time while eschewing all modern devices, though that would be wonderful. Technology is alive and in full throttle at our house, just in ways that involve a lot of discernment, whether with movies, YouTube, show series, etc. I try my best to keep things educational, or at least appropriate when it’s entertainment-based. Our kids have seen gobs of shows, movies, etc., and in deciphering among them, the attitudes and content are of utmost importance to me. We have a Wii we use when there are back-to-back days of rain so they get some activity. Evan watches YouTube videos like crazy when he’s itching to build something new or learn a new program. The point of my post, which I’m seeing I must have miscommunicated, isn’t that we are modern-day puritans who live without modern things. Though I sure resonate with that. I’m really choosy with how we want technology used in our kids’ lives, and I myself don’t care much about keeping up with the ever-newest thing. But I certainly use technology as a tool to further myself in something (like this blog), or a tool to hear new music (Evan and I just made a big playlist on Spotify that they play for rollerskating on Saturday nights at the public school gym), or a tool to learn about something, or a way to do some quick catch-up on politics or current things like COVID. My aim is to avoid a family whose members are always on something so easy it prevents them from wanting to put real effort into learning real skills, and never present at home or at school. I strive to keep neuron paths capable of hard work or endurance in creativity that involves things like trial and error. To avoid the mindset that everything in life is either boring or hard compared to doing a video game or doing social media. The way you and I both use technology probably isn’t all that different. You use it to learn new things, to make art, to hear new ideas, to work, to be entertained, to laugh. So do I. You’re one of the people who is using it as a multifaceted tool for growth in various arenas in your life rather than so many, especially youth, who use it 100% as a mindless drip. I believe strongly that the latter develops into an addiction that’s really hard to undo. I love you, I love what you do with your life, and yet I still have to say the things I think are tough to watch in society these days even if I am considered a narrow-minded buffoon for those thoughts. But based on how you live your life, I’m not sure that what you stand for is all that different from what I stand for, unless I’m just dense.
Yeah, I understand.
What probably set me off to begin with was the title, “A Life Without Technology”.
As a scientist, it’s hard for me to understand someone who seems proud of “not texting” (for example), but I realized more than half way through that the title was paired with the title of the book you listened to.
So for you personally, I understand that you are replacing mindless entertainment with other activities, which is wonderful. I truly admire you for that. TRULY! But I don’t admire most people who complain about technology as if it is the evil to warn people about.
Ok, time for me to go watch “WestWorld” on HBO!
(another technological nightmare scenario. (smile))
(and I’m really starting to feel guilty about not visiting your other blog yet! I keep thinking I’m waiting for “the right time”. sorry…)