Tech Detox, Please

As I sit at my MacBook Air with my iPhone at arm's length, I am reminded that I've lost the ability to do nothing. Fidgeting, thumbing a smartphone screen, patting pockets to make sure I haven't left my technology behind. What happened to unplugging? It's an art, isn't it? Clearing your head and being mindful for a moment.

Tech Obsessed Since 1989

My name is Jen, and I'm addicted to tech. It started at the age of five in 1989 when my dad purchased two items: our first PC and NES.

How I loved looking at the computer's tall tower dotted with green flickering lights coupled with the sound of modem chirps. And the hours of entertainment I would spend in PrintShop, Carmen Sandiego and Cartooners.

And NES. The hours spent glued to the TV, thumbs aching from handling the controller too long, desperate to win Zelda. I remember closing my eyes and trying to go to sleep, and still seeing magic potions and burning bushes in my head, gloriously pixelated behind my eyelids.

As I aged, my zeal for tech remained the same. When I was sixteen I obtained what would be later referenced as the 'Zach Morris' phone. It was about the size of a football cleat, and I was delighted to tote it in my backpack. In late high school I was into burning CDs of Nirvana to Eminem to give to friends between class. This contraband music interest evolved into Napster in college, quickly followed by interest in other startup websites including being an early user on Facebook and regrettably hotortnot.com.

Pushing Pixels

Even my career has been built upon tech obsession. Half planned, half by luck, I've stayed current by chasing the next platform or trend. I fell into a search engine marketing job in Chicago in '05 at a then startup, now global digital agency. I jumped markets to New Mexico and leveraged SEM experience to work my way into a small agency where I picked up social and web development experience. When I moved to Austin, I first landed at a digital agency and was able to work on bigger brand, digital campaign work. And my latest chapter, at Mutual Mobile, has afforded me the opportunity to focus on mobile products leading to wearable technology.

Selling, managing and marketing all those pixels over the past ten years makes me feel like a binary Avon Barksdale. And looking into the future, I don't see the market slowing down. In fact, it'll get much worse with technology embedded in meaningful and not so meaningful ways in everything - your house, car, pet, glass, glasses, hearing aid, employee badge, headphones, smoke detector, clothing, watch, ring, contact lenses, toys, shoes and even teeth.

We're Drowning in Digital

• 150: Quantity of times a day a person reaches for her smartphone (Mary Meeker)
• 1/3 of Americans prefer texting over talking (Digital Trends)
• 63% of people check their phone for messages or calls 1x an hour (Business Insider)
• 9% check their phone every 5 minutes. (Business Insider)
• 1-in-10 people check their phone during sex (Psychology Today)
• The average child looks at screens for around 9 hours a day, or about 75% of their life (while awake). (Inhabitots)
• 21% of children under the age of 2 have a television in their bedroom. (Inhabitots)
• American teens send or receive 3,339 texts a month. That’s 6+ texts per hour they're awake. (Inhabitots)

Tech Detox

There is hope. Lately I've come across several initiatives that suggest at least some of the population is saying, "enough is enough." These projects or businesses inspire me, as they represent a focus on helping people be more mindful and make active decisions as to how they'd like to spend their time with or without technology.

Detox Camps

Take Camp Grounded, an adults-only three-day camp in California that treats adults experiencing 'phantom buzzing' (90% of college students in a 2012 study experienced this) and other tech-sourced social plagues. The experience is created by Digital Detox, an organization "dedicated to bringing about balance in a digital age."

Tech Shabbat

Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby awards, implements a tech shabbat starting on Friday evenings through Saturday evening. Her family unplugs, literally, and stows away their technology devices. They use their time to be present with each other - playing board games, cooking, gardening, doing art projects, or writing letters.

Tech Detox Resorts & Spas

For folks with a little more money, technology detox spas and resorts are an experience to consider. From tropical getaways to lake house retreats where you check your smartphone at the front desk, absence of tech travel experiences are on the rise.

Balance

While most people aren't able to fly halfway around the world to unplug, we could all benefit from setting boundaries for technology within our own life and being more mindful and present. What are tech usage or screentime guidelines that you've applied to your life? Have you seen differences in how you feel and engage with others?

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