My father thinks that, due to the 'in your face' nature of technology these days, the next generation will resist technology, similar to the outlash against war in the 60s. I don't know about that (do you have an opinion?) but I see where that's coming from. My smart phone gives me incredible anxiety. It lags, it freezes, its never connected to the network, but worse -- I get emails about work all the time, I get ~5 telemarketer calls a day since the snapchat incident, and I am super unproductive when I pull out my phone during every idle moment to scroll through reddit/HN/twitter, pick your poison. And its, mostly, meaningless. At my university, people on the bus are nose deep in there iPhones at all times. At all times. I don't know if people used to talk on the bus, but they don't anymore. It freaks me out a bit, and I'm sick of it.
Do you remember the golden age of the moto razr 3? Not the droid razr, the flip phone. I still have mine, and I am considering going to verizon and canceling my data plan, to switch to the basic t9 flip phone (that just worked). Am I crazy? I know a lot of you out there want to, or have already deleted your facebook etc, so where is this all going? Could you revert to a simpler time without data plans?
Finally, I am a computer programmer by profession. Those of you like me will know, writing great software is damn near impossible. I think that is why I am skeptical of so much of this, because behind the scenes, I have witnessed first hand the madness that is a software project. (Do other compsci people feel this way?) Anyway, there is a ton of great, unobtrusive technology that we don't even think about, because it just works. See: digital watch, haha. I think that stuff will be around forever. But as a society, are we going to move past this 'social media' frenzy? Or are we going to get to the point where google glass is embedded in our heads, we will get advertisements in our sleep, and mentally reference wolfram alpha for every math problem?
cheers.
It's funny how "off the grid" to your generation is the "high school" of my generation. I didn't have a cell phone until I was 30 - and it was essentially the 2nd smartphone you could buy. "Off the grid" to my generation means "up in a cabin with no water, power, sewer, phone or television hookups." Take it from me - it can be done.
But it's boring.
The goal of traditional "off the grid" living is self-sufficiency, frugality and ascetic purity. It sounds like the goal of your "off the grid" is simply to reclaim some of your mental real estate. You're being distracted to death. You aren't alone. You're at a disadvantage - you've had it all in your face since you could walk, probably, which means you aren't inoculated against it. You'll have to build up immunity the hard way. It can be done, though.
Up until 2002 I said "I don't carry a cell phone because people don't have phone numbers, places do. I'm not a place. If you need to get ahold of me, you can call me where my phones are." Life made that rough but I gotta tell ya - I get maybe two calls a day. If we cut out the ones from my wife, I get maybe five calls a week. I check Facebook maybe twice a week, I don't tweet, i don't snapchat, I don't do any of that shit. And my life doesn't lack it.
To the contrary - I solved a sticky professional situation today. The problem had been generated by email etiquette. I fixed it by inviting the guy to lunch. SORTED. But you have to make that choice, and you have to make the people who matter to you understand that choice.
You don't have to answer your phone. You don't have to check your email. You don't have to log in all the fucking time. You choose to. You're conditioned to, everything about your life tells you to, your social network demands it of you. But it's still a choice.
Want something to do? Buy a Kindle. Not a Fire, not an HDX, a gray one that sucks for everything but books. Buy a book or two. You're conditioned to looking at a screen and you're conditioned to having a million songs in your pocket and having a dozen books will suit you. You can save things, your place doesn't get lost, and it'll sync to your phone. And the difference between "reading Facebook on the bus" and "reading a goddamn book on the bus" is night and day.
Buddy of mine has six motorcycles. We both ride in LA traffic every day. We independently came to the same conclusion - riding a motorcycle in LA traffic is the only way to be truly mindful, to be truly present in this city. If you're driving, you're tuned out (and probably stoned - you would not believe what the 405 smells like at rush hour). If you're a passenger, you're elsewhere. But on a motorcycle? "pay fucking attention to everything that is going on around you or you might die." That choice - to commute in a dangerous and high-attention way - is one of the few things that actually keeps you present.
There's a phrase in one of my bar books: "Alcohol is an excellent servant but a terrible master." Technology is the same. If you're letting your gadgets pistol-whip you into doing things you don't want to do, the solution is to sack up and take some initiative in your life. Yeah, you can downgrade all your stuff so it's less of a temptation… but in the end, if you don't learn how to deal with it you'll be a slave as soon as your girlfriend leaves her iPhone at your house.
You don't have to go "off the grid." You simply have to choose not to have the grid on you.