--- title: "Overwhelmed By Technology" description: "For anyone who sleeps within arm's reach of their phone." author: "Rahim Rasul" type: "Podcast episode" series: "Halftime Talks" episode: 26 published: "2014-06-12" duration: "11 min" theme: "Attention and focus" tags: "technology, phones, social media, tech detox, habits" audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_026_Overwhelmed_By_Technology.mp3?dest-id=175061" url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/overwhelmed-by-technology/" site: "I Love Process" --- # Overwhelmed By Technology _For anyone who sleeps within arm's reach of their phone._ **The question:** How can we use these technologies to aid in who we want to become? Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT_026_Overwhelmed_By_Technology.mp3?dest-id=175061 ## Before you listen How often do you sleep within arm's reach of your phone? Have you ever typed Twitter or Facebook into a browser without meaning to? How soon do you start freaking out when a call or a text goes unanswered? Small questions, but they give you a look at your own habits. I am a tech guy. I grew up on The Jetsons and Back to the Future, expecting machines to take the burden off and give us more leisure. At the beginning of the year I became overwhelmed by how we're required to use it all. Before 2000 you could go a whole day without checking email. Now a missed call brings a text, another call and righteous indignation, and somebody posts a new car and defines themselves by the likes. Listen for the challenge, easy for some and impossible for others: a weekend or a week of tech detox, a month if you're really brave, or one weekend off LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. ## From the talk > I was overwhelmed with how we're required to use it or interact with it, it's become more of a burden than the idea of freedom. > > My ultimate vision of technologies, it flows with your life not complicates it. > > Technology is awesome. But sometimes it grows so fast that socially we're unprepared to deal with the ramifications of what now exists. ## Sit with this - What can you begin to minimize out of your life? - Can you go tonight without touching your phone? - Can you turn your cell phone off while you sleep? ## Transcript In today's episode, we're going to be looking at technology and its role in our lives. And how do we remain sane, balanced and organized in how we utilize it. I am what you would call a tech guy. I love tech. I remember growing up watching episodes of The Jetsons, like, Yo, one day, we're gonna have cars that fly, we're gonna have watches that we can communicate with people like telephones, we're gonna have all this kind of technology. And then you see movies like Back to the Future with hoverboards and, and shoes that tie themselves and all these other things of technology. And we grew up in a generation where the prevailing theme was, so by the time it's 2015, or 2010, or even 2000, we would live in this highly technological time, and space, or machines will be taking the burden off of our desk, and making our lives easier, giving us more leisure, and more freedom to do and express who we want to be. After graduating college in the mid 90s, late 90s, excuse me, thanks, things kind of changed. You know, you had the inventions of, of silent cellular phones were on the rise, then you had Motorola two ways. In dinette computers became cheaper, and we started buying more and more computers. And technology really experienced a boom, it experienced a boom because we've now found new ways to solve old problems. We solve new problems and created other problems. So that fast forwards me to today. I remember at the beginning of the year, I became overwhelmed with technology, not necessarily with technology itself, I was overwhelmed with how we're required to use it or interact with it, it's become more of a burden than the idea of freedom, in some cases, to the extent that as technology expands, we begin to utilize technology in ways and means it probably wasn't intended for case in point. Just nod your head to yourself if this sounds a little bit familiar. Let's just say pre 2000, you could go the whole day. without checking the email, you can go a whole day without picking up a call, you will be away from your house, and you will come home, you would check your messages and get back with them at a pretty good time. Fast forward circuit today. If I miss your call, you're probably going to send me to text. And then you're probably going to call again. And if I haven't returned, or returned a text or a call for that perspective, there's this level of expectation, this, this righteous indignation that, hey, I've called you twice. I've sent you two texts, how can we ever call me back? Or it can even just spiral out of control from there. Same thing with email. There's a group of individuals who go completely passive aggressive on email, which would never say the same thing to your face. There's a whole culture called trolls, and all these other things. So is technology really being utilized in its highest utility? How do we organize our lives so That technology exists. And it doesn't just add another sub routine or activity that we have to organize and manage my ultimate vision of technologies, it flows with your life not complicates it. So we have so many things that we're juggling right now we're juggling social media. How come? And then it's funny because even with social media, our expectations, you know, like, our personal image, our vision of ourself, our desire to nest to be seen and be seen and perceived as something is tied to technology. Somebody will put their new car on social media and define themselves based upon the number of likes, they get, like, what do I have to do? It becomes this social, interesting phenomenon. On Twitter, you just yell out to the world and hope somebody gravitates to. So how can we use these technologies to aid in who we want to become? How do we flow with it, instead of letting it flow with us or control us? How can we manage our emails, manage our social media, manage the technology, so it's not another piece of our lifestyle, we have to control, organize, and manipulate. Technology is awesome. Technology is awesome. But sometimes it grows so fast that socially we're unprepared to deal with the ramifications of what now exists. And there's hope. I'm not trying to be Mr. pessimistic, but there is hope. One of the functionalities that I love in our life is that, you know, like, even with the iPhone, there's a Do Not Disturb function. And so instead of feeling like, you have to respond immediately, you wake up four feet away from your phone, you're never a foot and a half away from your phone at all times, you're obsessed with managing your battery, understanding Airplane Mode on subways, or you go certain places, and you just turn off your cellular data, and you're responding to texts. And now you're using things like Snapchat. Now there's things like Do Not Disturb. So you know that you can get into your intentional rhythm at the beginning of the day, and not field any calls. There was a time when everybody wanted emails, like it was cool to get an email. It was cool to do this, it was but now there's better spam filters, or people set up auto responders that allow us to maneuver Hey, If this is really an emergency, give me a call, thank you, blah, blah, blah, I won't be out of the office or I will not be able to accept your calls. X y&z. So as we more move into a space where we've, we release some of our mental dependency from technology, I would recommend a weekend or week and if you're really brave, to two weeks to a month tech detox, what don't you need? What can you begin to minimize out of your life? You know, we begin to develop these neurosis and attachments to our technology. And then we take a vacation, where we don't get an incoming call. And we tell ourselves, oh, man, that felt so good. I didn't have to check my email. You know, I didn't have to be on a conference call or I wasn't attached to my phone or you know, all these different things that come with technology. So I challenge you. And this is an easy challenge for some and an impossible challenge for others. For those who was an impossible challenge, just speaking with one thing. This weekend, I will not engage in LinkedIn, or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. Or you may just take one or two social media things off of your off your list. Or a higher challenge would be Hey, can you go tonight without touching your phone? Can you turn your cell phone off while you sleep? These are audacious claims. But I will contend that they'll end up making you that much happier. Because our attachment to technology is just at an all time high and technology is going to keep on growing and technology is betting on the fact Back through ad revenue through banner ads to email marketing, through TV commercials to all these things on your iPad, your phone, your tablets and your computers, that your eyeballs are going to be engaged in their business in some form or another. So set your intentions, set your intentions that what you prioritize is important too. And get more done. Utilize more of your day in achieving your desired outcomes, instead of making another another banner ad or another type of advertising mechanism work for somebody that's not yet.