Get Off the Grid Without Growing a Beard

This is a companion post to Technology WTF!?!? from a few weeks ago. Where that post was about what I am doing, this one is about what readers can do to take back precious time, attention, creativity, and connection with others.

Dorothy was wearing the slippers the whole time. 

She got them from the good witch in the first 20 minutes of the movie and before she even began her epic journey down the yellow brick road to Oz.

I guess it would have been a short movie and she might not have discovered how powerful and courageous she was if she’d known the whole time that all she had to do was click those slippers together three times and chant there’s no place like home.

But life is not a movie and you are not Dorothy so maybe I can save you some time following the yellow brick road much less encountering terrifying flying monkeys.

In 2022, the mobile device is some insidious brain eating maggot. 

I’ve observed it in myself and others a bunch of times by now and took note yet again last week when I walked a few miles through New York City from Midtown to the West Village and back again.

People are zombies walking down the streets with their faces in their phones. 

But we can delete distractions and take back control of our attention. We can neglect the internet. We can get off the grid without growing a beard or befriending bears.

The Costs of Phone Addiction

The mobile device is a tool that we purchase like a hammer or a compass.  We use a hammer to pound nails and we use a compass to determine the direction we are heading.

It can be used for many valuable purposes, but when we begin disengaging from the real world and wasting precious time, it stops being a tool and morphs into a needle.

The prevalence and costs of phone addiction are much greater than is commonly recognized today and the price we are paying will only begin to sink in over the coming years.

Costs include:

Socialization and Human Connection > Humans are social animals by nature from when we are newborns and look into our mothers’ eyes for the first time to the day we are eulogized by those who love us and whose hearts we will continue to live on within. 

But when we get lost in the endless scroll, we disengage from the important people in our real lives and neglect this fundamental human drive to connect.

Attention > We only have a finite number of minutes over our lifespan so our total attention is limited, like beachfront real estate, and super valuable. 

It’s more valuable than we are giving it credit for and so if we are mindlessly scrolling, we are giving up the limited time we possess.

Creativity > Being creative requires our attention. Maybe it is focused or maybe it is more stream of consciousness, but either way our minds are busy imagining.

As a result, when we fall into the mindless scroll, we sacrifice our own creativity. Maybe we are neglecting our own individual talent in the process. Maybe we are missing a brilliant idea, something that would enhance our lives and the lives of others. 

Mood > Mobile device addiction, especially social media overuse, affects mood and can increase depressive feelings and anxiety levels. 

We Can Get Off the Grid Anywhere

Yet, as it turns out, we can get off the grid anytime, anywhere. 

We don’t have to escape into the wilderness for years and grow a beard like Grizzly Adams. We can do it right where we are now.

We control our attention and can delete distractions. We can neglect the internet. We are right now all of us wearing Dorothy’s slippers whether we realize it or not.

Here are four ways to get off the grid without growing a beard:

1. Turn off the phone. Pretty simple. There, we are off the grid.

2. Click the Do Not Disturb function every phone has which silences all notifications including the phone ringer.

3. Put the device in a drawer and walk away or leave it in the car and enjoy a night out without distractions.

4. Remove apps we tend to get addicted to like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

I just unplugged for a few days. 

I took my son Max to Maryland over the weekend for a lacrosse tournament.

I put the phone on Do Not Disturb mode the whole time. No texts, no phone calls but if I wanted to use Google Maps to find the hotel I still could.

I was using the tool on my terms and avoiding overuse.

Taking Back Our Precious Attention

We can take back our precious attention just like building muscles or lung capacity.

I’ve been doing this for about seven years after spending years employed and immersed in social media.

When we begin an exercise training program, we start slowly and build our way up. We progress. The same is true here.

Maybe we want to be able to do ten push ups but we can’t do one yet so we start with a few bent knee push ups and progress with effort over time. 

We get to ten or twenty bent knee push ups and progress to a few standard push ups.

Then, we stick with it and progress to ten full push ups. Then maybe we build it to twenty.

The same is true for reducing mobile device addiction and abuse.

Here’s a Sample Progression

Here is a sample progression for taking back your time and attention.

It’s a hypothetical, because everyone does different stuff but you’ll get the idea. We move from small gains to greater gains and build control over the device where once we were more controlled by it.

We can begin with brief phone fasts like turning it off, putting it on Do Not Disturb, or leaving it in a drawer for thirty minutes while we play chess with a son or daughter.

Next, we can do the same thing but for a greater duration, like an hour or two while we are playing with our kids or reading.

Next, we can put the device on Do Not Disturb or leave it in the car when we go out to dinner with friends or family.

Next, we can turn it off and put it in a drawer an hour before we go to bed and leave it there until the next morning while we sleep without distractions.

Next we remove social apps and other stuff that wastes our time from our phones entirely and limit usage to when we are on desktop. 

(Or if need be, we stop usage altogether. I stopped using Twitter for over five years and Instagram for six years.)

Next, we can put the device on Do Not Disturb for a weekend lacrosse tournament and make use of it only when it is of value like using Google Maps to find a hotel.

And so on…

Pro Tip: Focus On Gains

Here is a ProTip for those who are making the effort to progress to a level where the mobile device is a tool we employ as needed and nothing more.

Focus on Gains!

When we focus our attention on the gains we are making when we successfully limit mindless mobile device usage, we are reinforcing the benefits. We are acknowledging the reason behind the gains.

This can be a powerful component of self-conditioning.

In other words, as you begin to build these new muscles, take careful notice of the benefits and let them sink in. Maybe even write them out. Something like,

I put my phone on airplane mode today when I took my kids up to the park to play ball. We wound up having a conversation about their friends and school and I joined them in a game of wall ball. This felt great connecting with them without any distractions plus I had fun playing.

Or

I turned my phone off at 8 PM last night and put it in a drawer. Plus, I got a great night’s sleep. While I’m not 100% certain these two things are causally related, it’s one strong data point. Maybe I will try this again tonight.

***

Good luck everyone!