The Tech I Use

I’ve always loved mechanical things and gadgets.  In my childhood I was fascinated by the mimeograph machine in my father’s church office.  I loved tape recorders (reel to reel and cassette), and movie projectors (16 mm).  I developed an interest and hobby in magic tricks and illusions but more for their mechanical gimmickry than for the story telling (I still have a trunk of magic tricks from my childhood moldering in the garage!).  I’ve always loved figuring out how things worked.

So, I am a natural to be captivated and taken over by modern electronic tech. Enter the Internet Age where you can talk to your phone and computer, watch thousands of movies on your smart TV, and manage the heat in your house with a thermostat you control with a voice command driving home from work in your car.  And perhaps my favorite and still most personally mind boggling – a device you can ask to play any song or tune that happens to be in your head, and it will, right off the internet.

So I thought it would be a good starting point in this diet blog to report on a few of my favorite gadgets and how I use them, and it will become very clear why I need a break from them.

My first favorite gadget is my first generation Surface Book laptop.  This thing is four years old now – almost a senior citizen in laptop years, but it’s still working quite well and has not developed any of the annoying behavior problem typical of aging laptops.  The screen is still bright, the keyboard still functions, the storage (thanks to OneDrive cloud storage) still has room and the battery still holds a charge.  It was an expensive machine at the beginning but over time it’s become much less expensive than lesser machines because it still works so well and doesn’t need replacing.  I love this machine – perhaps too much and it’s one of the screens I need to take a break from. It draws me end to mindless searching for news or Facebook content, and into endless solitaire playing.

Second favorite is an iPhone XS.  I’m not an apple fan but this phone is near perfect. It too has a gorgeous screen, and fast response times for loading and switching apps.  It too was expensive (too expensive really), but I’ve learned to spend good money on gadgets up front, to minimize frustration and because the expensive stuff tends to last longer.  This device is truly addictive – and since it’s always available, holding the promise of brain stimulating content delivered on a compact device that’s difficult to put down or away.  The modern smart phone is designed to grab and hold our attention. I frequently find my self wondering what the weather is, or who’s responded to my last Facebook Post.  When I have a moment’s pause, my brain queues me to grab my phone to satisfy or interact with my thoughts.  The phone connected to search will answer any question or thought that might pop into my head.  But many are mindless and unnecessary.  Do I really need to know the outside temperature 15 times a day, or refresh my news app (Flipboard) when there’s a moments pause in my day?  No I do not.  I’m expecting my screen time to go way down on my iPhone this month.

My third favorite tech gadget is my Kindle Paperwhite, and since Christmas, my Kindle Fire 8HD.  I simply love reading on these things. They don’t hold the same addictive and distracting power as my phone and laptop, so I’ve kept them on the “ok to use” list during my diet. I don’t use them for internet or searching behavior (more on this in a later post).  I just read books on them.   I’m not entirely sure why I prefer eBooks to paper, but I clearly do. Perhaps it’s my aging eyes and the ability to tweak the text so it’s easy to read. Perhaps it’s that they are always perfectly lit for reading. It could be because they don’t flop closed when you get up to let the dog out.  Or maybe it’s that they are not fatiguing to hold in your hand like heavier paper books are.  Whatever the reason, I love reading on my Kindle, and I was surprised how much I’ve enjoyed the new Kindle Fire Tablet.  (Don’t despair those of you that prefer paper and ink – I got several Actual Books for Christmas and I’ll be reading them during my diet and I’ve been enjoying them more too!).

My fourth favorite tech gadget is our 4k Samsung smart TV.  The big, bright, beautiful, high resolution screen is certainly compelling and even addictive on it’s own.  But it’s the promise of diverse, commercial free content that’s really addictive.  Like the computer and the phone, this thing just begs to be used, and so it can become a mindless addictive device, again tapping into the dopamine stimulating search behavior of my other devices.  I need a break from it.  So I’ve given control of it to Cheryl. She gets to say when it’s turned on and off, and gets to choose what’s on it. I’m breaking my habit of endless searching behavior on YouTube, Netflix, Prime, and now Disney+.  I’m two days in, and I can honestly say I’ve enjoy the TV being off more than it’s on.

My last gadgets to list here are my two Echo devices (and now a third echo device for the car).  All of these were Christmas presents.  But I’d replace them in a heartbeat if they broke.  I use my Echo’s to control house lighting (I’m a total nerd with this stuff), have it connected to our smart thermostat, and I can control the TV and sound system with it.  But the real fun with this thing is the world of unlimited, instantly available music that I can play through them.  I always have a tune playing in my head and it’s just so gratifying to say out loud, “Alexa, play music from Lunasa” and she starts it right up.  Of course there is a whole lot of news, weather, sports, radio, podcast and audio book content that Alexa will play on demand too, and that leads into addiction territory and over-stimulation.  I’ve made allowance in my Rules to play music on Alexa – after all there is no screen – but I’m still cutting back on it. I’m beginning to identify the craving for mindless brain stimulation, and so Alexa is quieter than she usually is in our house, and that is a good thing.