time spent offline

Category: Leisure

Offline play

Once upon a time, I went to high school.

One day, while aimlessly walking the hallway, an older gentleman, a substitute teacher, asked me if I wanted to learn how to play Sudoku. Say what now? But I obliged. I had nothing better to do, and it was the polite response. I haven’t stopped playing Sudoku ever since.Before apps became ubiquitous, I scrounged for Sudoku puzzles in newsletters and magazines, then almost exclusively played it on the Sudoku app on my phone. Recently, I found a physical Sudoku set at the thrift store for $2.97. I prayed it had all the pieces inside as I paid for it and brought it home. My prayer was answered.
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2022-05-23
In praise of doing (absolutely) nothing

I’m practicing being still, doing nothing. I sit outside. I let the sky, the sun, clouds, trees, birds, sound from cars, and smiling passerby keep me company. It requires no special equipment, no special skill, to be still, to notice. And it’s free and can be done anywhere, anytime; preferably outside. A bird might shit on you, but that’s life. Getting fresh air and a dose of sunlight is worth the risk. I remain still. Quitting social media is the easy part, so is getting rid of your smartphone, planning weekly digital sabbaticals, and going for a walk instead. The hardest part is the time that remains, infinite, and what will you do with all that time? You can fill it right back up with 100 things to do offline, of course. There is no shortage of things you can do offline, depending on your interests, skills, and resources. Not everyone can or wants to go hiking, build a furniture, or plant a garden, but there is something to do for everyone in the offline world. No matter what we choose to do, however, doing things offline requires more effort than scrolling online.
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2022-05-17
A day without the internet

It’s a Friday afternoon, and after a very long week I want to completely unwind for the weekend. I consider my options. Go out to eat, grab drinks at a bar, even go for a walk if the weather permits; the usual and all good options but I want something more. Maybe less. I realize it’s been a very long time since I have spent a whole day away from my devices and the internet. I quickly go over a mental checklist of what I have got planned for the weekend. Sunday might not work, I’ve got a virtual podcast meeting, but I can do a device-free Saturday. I don’t commit to the idea just yet but it sounds nice to be able to break up with the internet for a full day; to get away. By the time I regain half-consciousness Saturday morning, I know I’m going to spend the day unplugged. It feels so right. My alarm goes off shortly after and I turn off my phone, turn off my iPad, close my laptop, grab my work laptop bag, and I put it all in a box. I tape it shut. I feel relieved.
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2022-03-28
In praise of slow media

Spotify has all the music you’ll ever need.

Apple gives you on-demand, unlimited access to millions of tracks. Netflix provides unlimited movies, TV shows, and more. You can get endless entertainment, live sports, and the shows and movies you love on Hulu. Anywhere. Anytime. We are drunk on endless, non-stop, fast-speed entertainment. I once heard a joke: Before streaming services, it took people ten years to watch Friends. I laughed. It also made me feel kind of sad. I watched Friends in less than a year— more like six months— often watching multiple episodes a day. Binge watching is the norm now. But is entertainment more enjoyable when it requires prolonged anticipation and patience before one can consume it? When it is slow? Slow Media is not about fast consumption but about choosing the ingredients mindfully and preparing them in a concentrated manner. Slow Media can only be consumed with pleasure in focused alertness. Although the good old days of slow media are long gone, I have been self-imposing slow media in my life throughout the years. I put limitations on what media is available to me through alternative options.
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2022-03-08
What do you do instead?

You live.

Saturday. It’s 1 in the morning, cold with light snow covering the ground. We have just returned from a super fun party a bit early, and I’m sober. We bundle up to go for a walk. No, we’re not crazy: I live for challenges, and I need to go on this walk. We walk downtown. As we’re crossing an intersection— cars approaching in the far distance— he turns to me and asks if I want to lie down in the middle of the road. I do, so we do. It’s quiet. Peaceful. I feel the vibration of the cars approaching in the far distance. A very new feeling. We get up a few seconds later. We keep walking.
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2022-01-24
Reasons to be offline

There are a million and one reasons to spend less time online.

The more one learns about the attention economy and its psychological and social consequences, quitting social media or switching to a flip phone seems the most obvious course of action. And we should all consider getting off social media and making phone calls important again. That would be the easiest part, anyway. The hardest part is finding reasons to be offline. Being offline is often romanticized by the hopelessly tech junkie, dreaming of better days spent unplugged from the digital noise, strolling through a beautiful nature trail, and most days spent with a good book, and conversations filled with laughter. The honest-to-god’s truth is, even if you do all those things, the offline world can be pretty boring. Especially until your dopamine receptors adapt to a slower, quieter and more mundane offline living. It takes a lot more effort than what you read online to get accustomed to and enjoy life on the other side of Mark Zuckerberg’s digital playground. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. The good news is it’s yet another new year and all the lies and failures of last year are behind us.
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2022-01-03
A year (trying to) spent offline

You win some. You lose some.

Five ways I spent less time online in 2021.

1. I quit social media (again)

After three glorious years without social media, and seven years away from those IG streets, I signed up for Instagram in mid-2020. Why? To share the most important message of our time: Spend less time online and (re)discover the pleasures of the offline world. Instagram won: I was spending way too much time on the app, trapped in a vicious cycle of mindless scrolling. #Fail.

Instagram: 1
Me: 0
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2021-12-27
How we start our days is how we spend our days

I paid attention and realized something yesterday.

I left my Airpods at home yesterday after my phone kindly warned me I have exceeded the recommended level for audio exposure. I wanted to give my ear a break, and didn’t want any temptation, so I brought a book instead for my commute. Usually, I would read an e-book on my phone while listening to music; switching between this app then that app, skipping this song then that song— the usual. On this particular commute, however, it was just my book and I, and my phone stayed in my purse. Then, magic happened. I got to work, and I got to work. I was more focused, like way more focused than usual.

I had less urge to check my phone, or mess around on the internet, or check email constantly. I took my lunch break outdoors, instead of the usual eating and messing around online at my desk. There’s a nice small park in the back of the building with some benches, and it was a gorgeous day. I left my phone in the office. When I left work, I went on my usual walk through a beautiful trail to the train station. I called my dad and we chatted. Then, I read some more on the train ride home. It was a good day, 10/10. I realized it was all thanks to starting my morning offline; with a book, instead of my phone. The book was, fittingly, In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed. The summary is in the title.
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2021-08-10
In praise of taking tiny digital breaks

The digital world can be all-consuming. There is a good reason for that: attention = profit. The more Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can harvest our attention, the more profit they make from digital advertisers marketing their products and services to us. That constant itch to glance at your phone incessantly? It is a natural reaction to apps and websites engineered to capture our attention. The more big tech learns about the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our psychology, the easier they can keep us glued to our screens. One way to resist the attention economy is to take tiny digital breaks.
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2021-07-06
Spotify and the paradox of choice

Six months ago, I deleted my Spotify account as part of my digital declutter to minimize digital noise. The result? Less skipping, more listening. Having access to millions of songs on Spotify led me to excessively skip songs in the pursuit of finding the perfect song; but rarely satisfied with what I picked anyway. I felt I could no longer enjoy a song or an album in its entirety— an increasingly rare but delightful experience I enjoy indulging in. Spotify was robbing me of the satisfaction of enjoying music. I’m not alone in this, and Spotify isn’t the only offender either; Netflix and Tinder are also some of the other popular platforms providing abundance without much satisfaction. What can explain such phenomenon?
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2021-06-22