It's time to learn to neglect gadgets

Katie Mackay had dinner with her brother somewhere in the city, which in itself is nothing special. If not for one moment - she went on a big step and left her smartphone at home. For her, as for the advertising strategist of Mother's creative agency in London, her mobile phone is not just a tool for checking email and social networks, but a vital tool for her career.

So when she agreed to hold a daily dinner without a phone, if I may say so - almost “naked”, this gave her cause for excitement. But most of all she was surprised by her brother’s reaction. “He said that for the first time in five years that we had dinner together I didn’t check the phone,” recalls Katie. "I feel terrible".
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Kathy is frightened by the very thought of leaving the house without a vital means of communication. What if a client wants to make an appointment early in the morning? Because of the smartphones that play such an important role in our lives, we cannot imagine ourselves without constant communication. But attempts to cure digital addiction and such “hunger strikes” - the refusal of technical means for a while, show that we are developing an ambivalent attitude towards our obsession with devices and the Internet.

In November, Mother London conducted an experiment at the Internet Week in Europe - a festival designed to celebrate the prosperity of the Web community - to find out what happens if you deprive five active media users of smartphones, email and Internet access for a whole week. The experiment was called “Say No to the Internet Week”.

Although Mother has offices in many cities from New York to Buenos Aires, Katy works in London, which is known for its extraordinary approach to advertising, among their clients are Coca-Cola, Stella Artois and Amnesty International. By applying an independent approach to participating in European Internet Week, the agency was able to demonstrate not only our dependence on smartphones, but also the strange transitional state in which we find ourselves, having ceased to use gadgets for a while.

The agency released a 15-minute documentary video to provide insight into the effects of “weaning” a person from a smartphone. Although all five participants are media personalities, the range of their experience and condition varies from “updated, with a reserve of new forces” to “not at ease and in complete confusion.”

For example, James Brown, the disheveled editor of the content agency Sabotage Times, accepted the challenge before everyone else, but began to worry about his dependence on the Internet. He expressed in grimaces, gestures and beautifully strong expressions how he overcomes the lack of technology, but at some point, when his phone vibrated nearby, he admitted that he was experiencing "psychological discomfort from refusal."

To pass the time, he chopped wood and focused on his little son, who said he was happy with the extra attention since his father stopped distracting Twitter. And James himself believes that the experiment freed him from a lot of noise.

Meanwhile, Sophie, a girl of thirteen, uses the Internet to access her social life on Facebook and Twitter. She says that disconnecting from the Internet means moving away from friends, and this is a disaster, every parent of a teenage girl knows.

For a week, Sophie resorted to old-fashioned handwritten letters. She pasted stamps on them, went down the street and put letters in the mailbox. Although it is not so convenient, but paper letters also have their advantages. Sophie said that by writing letters by hand, she put much more thought into them than if she typed them online. But she still lacks the instant delivery that the Internet provides.

“Part of the process of gaining experience is to share it with other people,” she said. "And when this does not happen, it is strange."

For example, after she managed to photograph an interesting person, she fell into a state close to paralysis, when she realized that she could not immediately share a photo with any of her friends online. But she managed to find a positive side - being an outsider, she could avoid the dramas that unfold on social networks.

At the same time, Emily Hare, the lead editor of Contagious marketing agency, found that the lack of internet deprived her of the phone functions that she used to use.

One day, for example, she faced difficulty while trying to figure out the movement of trains, buses, and the locations of London tube stations. The lack of a phone made her use a paper map to determine the options for travel, which she did very ineptly. Emily confusedly confessed that the wind blew the map, she conned and used Google to finally get out of this urban maze.

Emily admitted that she complicated the experiment, and if she had the patience to deal with the map, she would have solved the problem.

In the same way, fashion blogger Maria Pizzeria says that meeting friends was especially hard for her, as she stood outside the meeting places, waiting for her friends, who were not deprived of network access, to arrive. But more importantly, the absence of the Internet has deprived Maria of a valuable opportunity to throw out creative energy. When she began to notice the nonsense of stamping selfies , she said that she felt “lost”, not doing this for a week.

Cathy, perhaps, gained the most. While she was worried that her life might fall apart, she also found unexpected positive sides to this. For example, in the morning after the holiday, a colleague left on her desk a hand-made decorative memorable album with photos of the evening, published on Twitter and Instagram.

“This is much better - much more real and ideological,” says Kathy, delighted with the depth of thought.

Katie, who also runs a fashion blog, said that a week without the Internet has helped her to understand that multitasking is a myth .

“Without being distracted by constantly surfing the web with interesting things, or checking email, updating the Instagram feed, I felt I could concentrate better on the tasks,” admits Kathy. “I finished the case without losing my concentration, and upon completion I experienced a feeling of satisfaction from the work done.”

She also realized that technology was barely perceptible, but still influenced her relationship, only masking her isolation , rather than eliminating her - she concluded that it was just a brief rest from regular intellectual work.

“I felt an absolute transformation — not just mood, but rather my awareness of my mood,” she says. "Suddenly, I realized how much better I began to understand how I interact with people, I began to feel the pace of time better."

Such psychic involvement was not limited to interactions in the workplace since, like James, she noticed a significant change in her personal life too.

“Besides, I slept better and felt that I had more time to think, relax and enjoy simple things, like reading a book — all without the silent concern about what is happening online,” she shares.

Katie said that the main reason for her renewed sense of awareness was the mere presence of quiet moments unfilled with the Internet. For example, when the interlocutor went to the restroom during lunch, she just sat at the table, instead of immediately getting into the phone - it’s amazing how we try to fill in every free minute with updates.

“I was left alone with my thoughts,” says Kathy. "It made me realize how easy and how often I stop paying attention to people for the sake of senseless scrolling on Instagram." The strategist of a famous agency suddenly realized how much she invested herself in her gadget and began to realize that she was not entirely aware of this.

Similarly, while James rediscovered his private life and alternative leisure activities, he did not know how to be with newfound awareness, trying to choose between life, the littered online noise and the life of an Amish sect without the Internet at all.

For Katy and for those who hope to break free of this addiction, leaving the smartphone at home, this test should not be a radical change. In fact, she created a strategy that works in practice - it included, among other things, the upcoming changes, the beginning of which was laid by her experience. For example, she came to the conclusion that the really important news is never communicated by e-mail, so they always call.

She changed her views and is now convinced that during the meetings it is necessary to prohibit working in e-mail. She understands that while others come to meetings with gadgets, they will not devote enough time to the event, keeping the phone or tablet at hand.

She also stumbled upon a prosaic connection between technology, health and general well-being. “Constantly waiting for a miracle — did anyone send me an email — led to a sore back,” complains Katie. During this week without the Internet, her back felt as good as never before.

Katy has a new point of view on how we perceive the surrounding reality in the digital age. “No one else looks out the window in public transport,” she says. "It is strange that we have this mechanical fixation on the screen, while the world flashes outside the window."

In the end, our mental, physical and social well-being requires us to stop staring at our gadgets and watch the world that is spread right in front of us.

She noted that life without social media is more complete, involvement in a conversation and interrelation with the real world is much better when you are not on the Internet alone while traveling.

Although Katie’s experience turned out to be much more useful than she imagined, she wouldn’t recommend such a method to everyone - in particular, she doesn’t recommend this “hunger strike” as a way to start the New Year from scratch. She believes that such a break a week long can open her eyes to much , but a two-week rest or, conversely, a short three-day cleaning will not have a long and beneficial effect on your well-being.

Instead, aim better at smaller, but more lasting effects, changes that tend to accumulate. “Find a place for them in their daily lives so that this does not become what one would like to give up and give up,” advises Katie. “Changes in everyday life are more likely to have a lasting effect; it’s too easy to act on vacation in a certain way, and then, in everyday life, return to your old habits. ”

After the experiment, Katie began to change her habits in relation to technology, little by little, but steadily. For example, she charges her phone in the kitchen, not in the bedroom, leaves her laptop with all the working email in the office, preferring to use the iPad to work with the Internet at home.

Small changes, like these, ultimately had a great influence and allowed her to reconsider her life.

“I just have to make sure that I will never forget all the positive experiences that I received during that week. Unlike the January “detoxification,” these lessons really changed my behavior forever, ”admits Kathy. "So far so good, I have not returned to my old bad habits."