A couple of days without a phone

Strange title for a post but it does have a reason behind it.. 

So my current contract is full on and doesn’t stop either day or night. As a phone these days is connected either to a mobile network or Wifi access point it is pretty hard to turn it off, what with WhatsApp and Telegram being used for work to communicate progress it means that just turning off the Sim for some peace doesn’t work. Which means I have to turn my whole phone off… As everyone on the project knows my phone number I can’t even move to another phone with the Sim card. And of course it also means I can’t just setup another phone and carry on as WhatsApp and Telegram are linked to my Google account.

Yes I could just uninstall the apps or not install them on a new phone, ignore calls etc.. but ultimately as I have been getting more and more stressed out with the role I decided to turn off my phone until the New Year.

The surreal thing about this is going out and having a coffee I can see things I never noticed before as I don’t have my head buried in the phone.

I’ve also realised I use the phone to hide and escape, it’s almost as though you can turn on an invisibility cloak when you pull a phone and start scrolling through it. Yes I know you are still there and everyone can see you, but something about our society means you ignore people staring into their phones.

So what would I like to mention today to get you all thinking?

The internet.. Do you remember when everyday something new could be discovered and it wasn’t a platform for hate and control? I miss the simple nature of IRC and Talkers (thanks for introducing me Froodle), Then we had ICQ (remember that), Trillian.. Now everyone is on a platform, Facebook, MeWe, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.. It seems most people have forgotten that the internet is more than a series of platforms and as has been shown in China and recently Russia it’s easy to turn platforms off or control them. The internet was built to be a resilient communications platform. Instead we now have a large online advertising platform with fluff.. The more I observe the way things are progressing the more I see it twisted for everyone elses purposes.

I just hope the next big thing gives back control the us the people to continue to innovate and move technology and society forward. here;’s to taking back control of our destiny in 2020!

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