I am finding that being on fb 'passively' is allowing me to keep in touch with friends who use it to post life events as they happen, without posting myself except in response to postings that appear in my inbox.
Just now I am contemplating switching from a 'dumb phone' back to a 'smart phone' for practical reasons; weighing the pros and cons but really it's more about establishing guidelines for how I would plan to use it in a way that works for me so that I am not 'working for the phone', e.g. constantly checking for messages.
I'm finding that this feels doable, particularly as I 'map out' how the checks and balances can be part of my personal 'cell phone use system'.
For example, I can check a phone on a regular basis (once or x number of times a day) at times when nothing specific is going on that I am responding to in real time (e.g. an emergency or a family event being planned); rather than responding to every ping that lets me know a message has arrived. It seems likely that this would have the added benefit of sending the message to folks I interact with that I will check messages regularly but not frequently. I see this as a benefit because that is the message I want to send.
I can mentally insert a 'backup plan' that allows my intuition or a large number of messages within a short period of time to override this general program so that if it feels like I need to check for extra messages that are important but unexpected, I do so.
Perhaps, too, I will start to leave a 'not checking messages at this time' message when I am involved in something I don't want interrupted or if, for example, I am on vacation.
Another area of great interest to me is developing 'parameters of use' of technology with my children for their own lives, recognizing the addictive potential that is (often subtly) built into so many programs. How did he say it in the video? Something along the lines of there being 'attention engineers' (am I recalling this term correctly?) whose job it is to make a person want to use their specific program repeatedly.
When such repeated use causes urgent issues in other areas of life to become unaddressed this may define such use as being 'addictive'. Such issues make this an area of life I definitely want to consciously address with my children. Doing so seems like it can give them the tools to realize for themselves when they are being 'sucked in' to something they may not have otherwise realized is taking over a significant proportion of their lives, leaving other urgent issues (including, for example, a pre/teen's need to get lots of sleep) unaddressed.
Definitely a work in progress.
I like that I have people to interact with (including Ted Talks
) that give me access to insights I may not have come up with on my own, or that would have taken me additional time and effort to access.
