A Day Unplugged (24 Hours No Technology)

Background

August 7th was the annual Global Day of Unplugging. The Global Day of Unplugging (GDU) describes itself as a day that strives to create a movement of collective presence over a 24-hour period — to illuminate our relationship with technology and pledge to plug into whatever lights up our lives — creativity, love, introspection and human connection. Basically, you take a pledge to commit to unplugging from tech for a day. I think it’s a wonderful idea and give major kudos to #HALFTHESTORY and Larrissa May.

Here is a segment from Good Morning America explaining GDU:

Hesitancy and Paranoia

I had some major reservations going into a full day disconnected from the internet. A lot of the hesitancy stems from an experience I had being targeted in a sim swapping attack a few years prior. The attackers targeted me during a trans-Atlantic flight.

I followed all cybersecurity best practices (unique passwords, mfa, etc) but the attack was still successful. I was able to identify the attack and remediate the issue upon landing. Thankfully, the damages were mostly long-term paranoia and time spent calling banks on vacation, rather than site seeing.

Having this experience and working in cybersecurity I did not want to publicize the fact that I was unplugging for an entire day. It was only about halfway through the day unplugged that I was able to relax. I eventually concluded the benefit of unplugging for a day surpassed the associated cyber risk, a classic analysis from a cyber professional.

Shutting it Down

I was out on Friday night when midnight came around. I shot out a vague poll on LinkedIn but didn’t really tell anyone I was unplugging. This was mostly due to my paranoia. The only person I did tell was my mother, for obvious reasons.

The one other thing I did was throw up a poll on LinkedIn right before midnight: “Could you go 24 hours without your phone?” As of this writing, 282 people had voted, with about an 80/20 split in favor of yes.

After turning off my phone, I felt an immediate freedom. The realization that no one could reach me kicked in. NO ONE COULD REACH ME! What a joy!

Waking Up Free

The next morning, I woke up before my significant other, as I usually do. On a normal day, I scroll LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit for a few hours while making coffee and breakfast. That morning was different. I did feel like I was missing something but also felt an overwhelming feeling of content.

Instead of scrolling, I read. I went outside. I enjoyed my coffee more than I usually do. To some, this may seem trivial. My assumption is people intrigued enough to read an article about unplugging for a day have like habits to mine and might understand the profoundness I experienced.

Hyper Productivity

I ended up reading an entire book on that Saturday. I realized how much time I waste scrolling on my phone. I felt hyper-productive all day. I attribute this to two main things:

1.?????We lose a lot of time doing pointless things on our phones.

2.?????We lose our attention when we have our phones.

Now I know what the power of being phone-free can do. Some retrospective thinking from this seemingly obvious epiphany is my love of both airplanes and not buying data plans abroad. I get more done when people can’t reach me. It's that simple.

Things We Take for Granted

There were a couple of things that were more difficult without a phone. I ended up going to the NYC Botanical Gardens, which takes about an hour on the train. I had to rely on others for directions and train times. This was annoying, but also freeing and forced me to be more present.

I couldn’t call any of my friends to see what they were doing or look up any NYC happenings. This forced me to have a quiet day, which was actually great. I also didn’t take pictures.

In Summary

I learned a lot in this brief period. I got clarity on a couple of things in life I was pondering, but that’s for another post. I also realized the world doesn’t require me to be connected 24/7, even though I think to think it does. The next morning, I immediately turned off all push notifications to my watch. This was a big step for me, and I am super happy I did it.

I’m sure I will do this again truly believe the brief reprieve has changed my relationship with technology for the better… at least for now.?