Back in the day, when I was travelling across Canada, the only technology I had on me was an automatic camera, a Pentax.
That was it. Nothing else. And it did the job just fine.
At that point, I didn’t have an email address nor a mobile phone. I didn’t care about the internet, and remember getting annoyed when American travellers wanted to give me their email instead of their ‘real’ address. Back then, y’see, I’d sit down and write letters and postcards to friends around the world, not plonk myself in front of a computer and type away to someone in cyberspace.
I bought real newspapers and had real books. I kept a travel journal and went to the pay-phone to call home.
On one particular trip I’d linked up with some other travellers and we drove from Halifax to Montreal. We arrived in town the morning after a referendum on the future of Quebec in Canada, and stopped by at a diner to grab a coffee. Still weary-eyed from the long drive, we spoke to the waitress about what this referendum meant to her and other Canadians.
We chatted, laughed, and listened to her.
We were excited to be in Montreal.
No one stopped and said: “Wait a minute, let me take a photograph of this cake. I *need* to send it to the folks.”
No one said: “Hey guys, be quiet for a minute, I should take a snap of this coffee for all my friends in Ireland to see.”
Do you remember those days? Weren’t they grand?
Having lived in such a materialistic and narcissistic city as Prague, I can see that an excess of technology has taken us away from being in touch with nature and ourselves to chasing luxury and a happiness that actually doesn’t exist.
The Prague cafe
Tonight I popped into a nice cafe in the centre of town.
There was no atmosphere like that cafe in Montreal.
A tired Czech girl handed the menu to a German couple. The man asked for the wi-fi password straight away.
Of course, he spoke to her in English and she followed suit. Back in the day, we young travellers going across Europe enjoyed trying out the greetings and speaking to the locals in their language. We certainly wouldn’t speak English without politely asking first if they in fact spoke our language.
At the next table two men from a fellow Slavic country sat down. I couldn’t quite place the language but I recognised some similarities with Czech. Perhaps they were from Ukraine.
Speaking in English – again straight away, not even a dobrý večer which they really ought to know – they ordered and then spent the next 40 minutes looking at their iPhones.
Mesmerised by their iPhones. One of them even took a photo of his cappuccino.
President Obama had promised the world hope and change only a few years ago, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding work, and now, here they were at a cafe in a foreign country enjoying American freedom by using a device that the Americans hack into for their private information.
And if they had bought the latest iPhone, they’d have to give Obama their fingerprints to access the phone.
Once every 5 or so minutes, one of the guys looked up at the other and showed him a photo of something that was on the internet.
There didn’t seem to be any real communication anywhere here, a snapshot of the times we live in.
But actually, the timing was just perfect. I’ve been trying to de-clutter my life for a while, and today I made the next decision in the process:
I’m going to stop using my smart phone.
The old-style keyboard phone
Today I went to the O2 shop and got myself the kind of phone I used to have before, like almost everyone else, I got luxury fever.
I spent about $100 on a simple mobile and have felt more relaxed all day for it.
No more checking my day-bag to see if my $700 smart phone is still there.
No more surfing the net just because I can.
Instead I can check my phone for messages, then put it away and look outside at the people going past.
Or perhaps I can talk to a real person and have fun, fascinating conversations with people like I did when I was travelling across half the globe.
As the song goes, I’m tired of using technology.
As I de-clutter and de-digitalise, I see how hooked others are on technology. Seriously, while I was watching the German couple and the Slavic tourists tonight, the thing going through my mind was simply:
This is not how I want to live my life.
Yes, I’ll still keep my blog and type up worksheets for my students and clients. But I don’t need to buy the latest gadget from the USA and I don’t need to prove my worth by spending money on a product that could instead be used to pay for some French lessons or some kind of experience that I’ll look back on fondly when I’m 85.
No one’s really going to look back and say: “Damn, if only I’d bought that iPhone 8 a year earlier and taken a picture of my dinner in Japan on my honeymoon.”
What about you?
Do you have luxury fever? Do you *have to* have the latest toy? Can you go a whole day without checking your Facebook profile or email?
How has technology *helped* communication? How has it made communication worse..?
I’ll be curious to hear if you have similar thoughts or if you in fact feel all this technology has been amazing (even with Obama listening in to your calls).
Also check out
Minimalism by Mark Manson
You can’t take it with you
Hi David,
really interesting post 🙂 Shocking…
Me personally don’t use Facebook. For me it’s more useless then “just having” an iPhone. There’re all your virtual friends you’re talking about. Have you allready got rid of it? 🙂
Don’t need the brand new technology just to show off. I’m interested in technology, because of technology itself cos like IT things. Use my iPhone to search the internet for specific purposes. Not just for killing the time. I’m very curious about things and can immediately find out something interesting about every topic. For example about a book, I’d like to buy. And then buy it. A real book. Don’t have a kindle.
And btw don’t care about Obama. I’m an European :-))
Hi Monika
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Well, when Obama sells your information to Apple, you might care 😉
I still have Facebook but I rarely update my own status. I just posted on the Get Into English Facebook page, and it’s a way of reaching out to some people who don’t come directly to the blog.
Like many things, technology is great when used in moderation. I think I had gone too far and am very glad to be going more and more minimalist as I move to a friendlier, more human city 🙂
David
Hi David,
oups…what shall I say? You surprised me by your opinion or your “new telephone way”.
But there some ideas what I agree with them.
Personally, I don´t have luxury fever but sometimes I like thing like this but I needn´t them. Concerning iPhone, I love it:) I have a lot of applications what I very useful for me, like learning English, french verbs, FCE listening, etc. And when I´m walking out with Karolin, I read or listening something … The same is my iPad … amazing thing for me:)
Facebook, I have it, but it is all. I think that it isn´t good when young people, mainly teenagers spend many time in front of their computer or iPad and communicate with their virtual friends. For huge part of generation today´s teens Facebook the most important thing of the world … too bad!! But it is probably image these days, let ´s say.
Generally technology could be very helpful, interesting, educative but it is should be used reasonably. The world could be without communication … 🙂
By the way, very interesting topic! The opinion on this could be useful for essay 🙂
Technology is taking over our society and everyday life. Human interaction is drastically decreasing, including with the individuals that we are closest to. We need to put the phone, computers and tablets down and communicate with people. It is becoming a lost art.