Unplugging Without Unplugging
I am fascinated by the story about the journalist who wrote about his experience unplugging, though he didn’t unplug at all. It wasn’t a joke — he wasn’t trying to make a point about the untenable nature of unplugging.
He believed that he had unplugged. He didn’t consider things like tweeting dozens of times per day to be spending time online. He tweeted his news stories. He tweeted other people’s news stories. He got into conversations about the news on Twitter.
In other words, he did exactly what everyone plugged in does, called it being unplugged, and refused to admit that online time is online time.
That is one fierce situation of denial.
*******
I am not unplugging. I have hours where I’m not online, but I would never describe that time as a digital detox. I love down time, but I also love social media.
Can we really unplug? I don’t know anyone who has a job where they can fully unplug for months at a time with zero consequences to their career. I can choose not to use certain sites, and I can certainly set boundaries and limits with my time. But that’s not really “unplugging.” I’m not going to reap major health benefits from turning off Facebook for 24 hours.
I can’t see any employer being cool with me saying, “Hey, I’m not going to go online for the next four weeks. You won’t be able to reach me via email or connect with me on social media. In fact, if we don’t meet up for coffee, you’re not going to be able to speak with me at all.” Or, I mean, I could say that, but I wouldn’t have a job.
Which would be a reasonable reaction. Unplugging means cutting yourself off from communication tools.
So… is it time for us to stop talking about unplugging? To admit that it’s not possible; not in the true sense of the word? That the age of smart phones took that option away?
5 comments
Yep. I deleted my fb account because I am sensitive and was letting what I read get to me in a way that I didn’t like. I don’t miss it. However, I still use twitter and occasionally check insta. I am not friends with anyone I know in real life on twitter so it’s just news or humor, which takes away the issue I was having with fb. If I log out of twitter for a few days, I miss things happening in the world because I don’t watch much tv news or have a lot of time to read papers etc. The biggest conundrum I have with “unplugging” from fb is that my daughter’s school groups use fb to communicate. I’m the only Girl Scout mom without a fb page. So my husband is the one who joins the groups and shares the info with me. It’s tricky and I feel like I’m inconveniencing people but I can’t go back. These are tricky times, I guess.
I am pretty much totally unplugged from social media. I deactivated my FB account almost 2 years ago and never went back. I don’t remember what my Twitter or Instagram handles were. I was never even on SnapChat. So I do think you can be totally unplugged from social media. That is possible, as a teacher at least (and I think for teachers having social media accounts is a possible danger to your professional life, not a benefit).
I definitely couldn’t unplug from email for any length of time. Not in my personal or professional life. But the vast majority of families at my daughter’s school don’t have email at all (or at least don’t write it on anything). So it is still possible. But I think it’s very limiting and if you have been online and people have the expectation that they can find you here, it would be really hard to step away or any extended period of time. It’s definitelt a part of life now.
I work from home so it’s not even remotely (ooh a pun!) possible for me. But, I limit my news consumption because I can only take so much. And I’m on twitter solely because of work and networking, and I keep my Facebook feed culled regularly, and blocked so that very very people can see what I post. I’m not on any of the others.
I agree with your proposed admission. Weird that they journalist had such an odd definition of what offline and online are for him.
Either that journalist was in serious denial, or was just trying to jump onto a bandwagon and lie!
I haven’t unplugged for a long time. Even when I travel, these days all hotels have wifi, and friends and family back home want to know what we’re up to, so we don’t check out. I adored my first safari – nine years ago now – because the lodges (at the time) didn’t have wifi except in one public area, and it was dodgy at that. To be so far out in the bush, away from civilisation, and completely unplugged, was in fact, bliss.