Digital Detox;
Time to Disconnect To Connect
C
|
amping and
hiking guides recommend you be detached from your phone in order to get lost in
the fun and adventure with fellow human being and not being obsessed with your
phones.
By MUSYOKA NGUI
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| You can reduce anxiety, stress and increase productivity by digital detox/Internet |
When
I first heard renowned Tanzanian Gospel star Rose Muhando’s song Facebook I immediately lashed out to her
scathing condemnation of new technologies as laced with analogue and archaic
tendencies of a conservative Christian keen of condemning anything that
challenges convention.
In particular I didn’t like the way she accused
school children of failing exams due to digital addiction. For one, all public
primary and secondary schools prohibit pupils and students from attending
school with their mobile phones and when entertainment is served it is usually
once per week preferably on a Saturday night.
Muhando went ahead to accuse doctors of
negligence by being glued to their mobile phones when they are supposed to be
saving lives of patients. She categorically singled out Facebook, Twitter, and
WhatsApp for messing up the lives of people. Unashamedly, members of
congregation resort to social media under the false pretext they are reading a
soft copy of the Bible in the app they downloaded from Google Play. As a
result, the span of concentration to the Gospel wanes and the flock gets distracted.
Digital Detox
Welcome to the world of digital detox. This is a
phenomenon when one needs to be delinked from the internet and focus on the
environment around them. It has a number of benefits which we shall see
shortly.
Abstaining from using electronic devices is not
easy for those addicted. No wonder people get personal when Kenya Power causes
a blackout in their area yet they (KP) may be innocently fixing a pole that is
loose or connecting rural villages to electricity. The real problem is that
continued power outage will make users miss out on “important trending topics
on the social media” not KP’s expansionist forays.
Some die to catch the latest juicy gossips about
people who are in practice few meters from them and instead of going the old
fashioned way they resort to the social media where malice is cool and truth an
enemy.
Being constantly connected saps one’s time and
energy. People are reported to have went to bed at 9 pm only to sleep at 5 am
in the morning. Instead of relaxing their minds and bodies they transit with
night data bundles which are enticingly priced by telcos to make sure you do
not sleep and the ISPs profit.
Conspiracy Theory
I am told of a conspiracy theory that a local telco
may be engaging in population control measures now that ladies and Catholics
protested against the tetanus jab that was supposedly made to make them
infertile. The campaign by the Ministry of Health has not helped matters as
users have shunned the injection like a leprosy case.
This conspiracy theory although it is riddled with
major missing gaps lends credence to the claim that digital detox is the answer
to constant anxiety and stress people are facing at home and workplace to the
extent that they cannot produce and reproduce.
If your boss finds you trawling the internet and
particularly the social media do not blame him/her for sending you to the
inflation because unless you are an online editor or a marketer of a top online
services company you are supposed to be doing “real” work rather than masquerading
in the system. You are as fake as a ghost worker because let’s face it; both of
you are unproductive and a liability to the employer. It makes economic sense
to offload you. Fast.
The mere habit of looking at your screen at all
times makes those around you to feel unappreciated since it is implied that you
consider your device more important than your family, friends, colleagues and
even strangers.
The problem is not technology but how we use it.
It is not technological determinism envisaged by Marshall McLuhan. Let us not
be used by technology to but be masters of technology. It should serve us not
the other way round.
Mobile service providers know and understand
that you are desperate for connection. They even let you get into debts just to
stay online. They siphon your bank accounts by allowing banks to be a dial way.
Those buttons are digits for self-destruction and slavery.
Discipline
Banks and huge blue chip companies serve their
own interest but as a customer you are hoodwinked to think they are serving
you. Nothing can be further from the truth. CSR is a fallacy. If a telco is
serious with philanthropy why does it not plough back 10 per cent of its profits
to the users?
Mobile phones, laptops and smartphones as well
as desktops are the modern day alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. Being online always
makes you miss the moment. You think you are connected by in fact you are
lonely. Your right to privacy is infringed. Internet connection disorder can
range from headaches, itchy eyes, bruised fingers, abdominal discomfort and
even disrupted eating habits.
It requires discipline to cut off the connection
and resist the urge to connect to the internet. Camping and hiking guides recommend
you be detached from your phone in order to get lost in the fun and adventure
with fellow human being and not being obsessed with your phones. It never
killed any holiday maker on vacation to set aside their electronics and enjoy
the moment they interact physically with fellow human beings. We are social but
social media is antisocial.
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