"Wrestling with my technology"
"Wrestling with my technology"
By L.
Hello! I am 24 years old and I live in New Zealand with my husband. I began wrestling with my technology about 2 years ago. I have divided my brief story into three sections:
Digital tech
Other tech
Moving forward
Digital technology:
I use the word wrestle because it is a constant tension for me, the pull towards engaging with ideas online and the desire to be offline.
I work full time online as a tutor, so I am spending a lot of my time on the laptop which frustrates me, but I also really enjoy my work and connecting with my students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get this help due to living so remotely.
One major thing that I have done has been to move to a dumbphone. It has come with all the inconveniences and adjustments that have been documented before. My main difficulty has been learning to navigate without maps. Our nearest city is about 45 minutes away and I do not know how to navigate it without googlemaps. So I am hoping to find a paper map (hard to find in my neck of the woods) and learn to navigate it without the maps.
Some things that I have included into my life as I have phased out the constant stimulation of a smartphone has been learning to play the viola and piano. It’s a humbling experience to learn to play a string instrument as an adult. My poor husband has to listen to it, but it has been a really awesome thing to learn to play. I have developed a love of music, it has become something that I play for leisure and I hope to continue to learn and appreciate good music.
Another thing that I have tried to implement is using my public library. When I have a query about something or want to learn about a subject, I have been going to my library and getting books out about it. This has been a fun practice and it has been awesome to use my library more. My husband and I have also begun reading a novel together (currently reading “the 100 year old man who climbed out a window and disappeared”). We take turns reading it and it has been a wonderful way to spend an evening.
Other technology:
In December 2023 my husband and I moved down to one car. Living rurally it means that my husband takes it for his work and I stay at home ( as I work from home). This has been a very interesting experience. I found that I had to organise my life a lot more and that everything takes a lot longer when you’re on foot. Also becoming very aware about how the area we live in has been designed so that you need to own a car if you want to get anywhere.
We have in the last week moved into a township where most essentials ( like supermarket, library etc..) are within walking distance. I am very exciting to continue this one car experiment and try experience our little town on foot. I want to take the time to learn who my neighbours are and learn the names of the streets and take the time to really know the place in which I am living. I am finding that is easier to do at a walking pace.
We also moved into a very old house with limited electrical sockets and limited insulation. It’s been interesting to observe these things, as I am accustomed to the modern house that we were renting with electricals sockets all over the place. You could plug everything in and within an hour of using the heat pump it became warm enough to wear a t-shirt in winter. In our current house it takes more time to keep warm and more navigating when I want to use an electrical appliance. These aren’t bad things, but an adjustment and an exposure to a different way of living. It also means that I am feeling the cold of winter! Wool is used for a reason! It feels more real somehow. I am learning that there are natural limitations to things. There is a time and a season for everything and I think living in this house, having to walk everywhere by foot, I am going to have a crash course in these truths.
Moving forward:
I still have this constant tension with technology. I get frustrated at myself and my inability to walk throughout the world without it. At the same time I feel immensely blessed that I have access to so many thoughts and ideas (such as this substack) online.
Going forward I want to explore how I am consuming information. Although I have removed my smartphone, my laptop has taken it’s place. I constantly am listening to podcasts from spotify and then not being able to remember what I’ve listened too, or can only remember fragments. So I am giving myself a month to not listen to any podcasts. Just to see if there’s a way that I can move throughout the world and learn things in a way that not just being overstimulated with information all of the time.
I also want to bring these thoughts outside of myself. My musings about technology have been very much just for me, how I spend my time etc. But I want to begin seeing if I can try do some activities with people, in-person. Things like : rosary nights, in person book clubs, games nights, or learning a piano or string duet with my husband etc..
I am just bumbling along the beginning of this journey. I am not totally satisfied with where I am at with my relationship with technology but it is something that I want to continue working on. I think the hardest thing is that I have grown up with this technology. I haven’t got many of the skills that were developed before digital technology, I learnt to drive with Googlemaps, I don’t know my way around without it. So I am finding that I have to use technology to learn the skills that will help me step away from technology. I am looking forward to hearing about other people’s experiences. Your substack has been invaluable to me. It’s wonderful to hear about other people who are thinking about these ideas.
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