Hi,
This is the story of a fictional character Dave the developer’s endeavor.
It was a Wednesday evening and Dave was getting fed up with all these notifications on his phone, taking so much attention away. Dave has a YouTube addiction. Every beep on the phone was an opportunity for him to just have a quick look at YouTube and see what was going on. We all can agree at this point that Dave does not do just a quick look… he probably spends hours of his valuable time watching people reviewing random stuff he would never need in his entire life (probably).
Anyway, Dave said to himself that’s enough… Dave reads something about digital detoxing and wonders why not give it a try but on a smaller scale. He decides to lock all of his devices away just for a day.
Dave is excited about it. He starts making a list of things he’d have to unplug. (Phone, TV, Laptops, Tab, Smart Devices, Radio, VR, etc…)
He goes out and buys himself an alarm clock, prints out a to-do list for the next day, and starts shutting things down.
He was starting to get a little anxious but he was determinant.
Dave is all set up for the next day. He goes to bad. The alarm clock starts ringing.
Dave: thank god it’s working.
Dave gets ready and leaves for work. He realized how much more work was getting done because of the absence of the phone on his desk. It was not that Dave was constantly using the phone when he’d have it on by the side. It was merely the presence of it. He finishes his work, attends meetings, and leaves at 5 feeling more appreciated for his work.
He goes to the library, picks up some books, and reads one of the books he’d brought home from the library. He learns that Humans were not wired “to read” and it is something that we trained our brains for. And the implications of the internet on our reading and reasoning capabilities.
He’d have dinner at 10, lie down on his bed, check off half the tasks on the to-do list, and go to sleep…
Dave was tired by the end of the day. But it was not because of not doing anything, but because of achieving something. Dave learns the next day that people call it “Intermittent digital fasting” so that’s what he settles with.
The next day, Dave keeps the phone muted, and devices turned off after use, and adds one more item to his to-do list.
Respond to messages (10 minutes)
Thank you for reading.
