Technology gets better and better every year. Our lives become easier as technology advances.
Every technological advancement takes away self-reliance. Technological advancements will never make your life more difficult; each advancement makes us work less or empowers us to work more with less effort.
No one memorizes phone numbers anymore. Phone books were replaced by contact books long ago. If you need a phone number, you don’t have to thumb through the yellow pages; all you have to do is Google it.
Everything you want to know can be Googled. Google organizes all of your searches; Google knows more about you than your family does. Google is the wise oracle of Delphi in your pocket.
Technological Isolation
People barely leave their home anymore for food or cook for themselves; you can get any food you want delivered in under an hour. Soon, you’ll have delivery direct to your bed by drones. You won’t even have to walk your fat ass to the door.
Technology makes our lives easier. Easier isn’t always better.
The chances of technology failing us are slim. One day, it will happen.
Could you survive? Do you know how to call any of your loved ones if your smartphone can’t access your contacts? Do you know how to get to a grocery store, a hospital, or drive to the next city over?
Most of us don’t.
Technology is good but it destroys self-reliance.
You don’t have to rely on yourself if you have a smartphone. Your phone will do everything for you.
The problem with relying on your phone too much is the potential to develop habits which condition you to rely on anything except for yourself.
Increase your self-reliance once a week with a technology fast
At least once a week, on a quiet day like a Sunday; turn your phone off and put it somewhere out of sight.
While you need your computer for work, you don’t need access to social media, e-commerce sites like Amazon and other time-wasters.
Use an internet blocker, like RescueTime and block yourself from accessing time-wasting sites.
Cut yourself off from technology for a set block of time once a week. You’ll be surprised how naked you feel without the advancements of the last decade.
Start with two hours, then four, then six; take as much time as you need to be disconnected.
Try going an entire day without fruitless tech. You will look forward to your silicon-free day in a short while.
If you’re a true savage, try hard mode: disconnect your internet during your vacation from circuitry.
It isn’t healthy to be connected all the time nor is it good to live online in a world that doesn’t exist.
The point isn’t to live in a generation: we are trying to reduce the unproductive, stressful, and manipulative interactions with technology and replace them with interactions that get you closer to what you want.
You can use your alone time to get some Deep Work completed and get to know yourself better too.
Use this time to make some serious progress on a project or goal. Find some new, profitable skill that you would like to try–like coding for free on Khan academy; or learning who you are with Jordan Peterson’s, Self-Authoring program.
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