A Digital Diet: Drop (Calls, Texting, Web) and Give Me 28 (Days of Peace)
- By Lena Groeger
- May 28, 2011 |
- 9:30 am |
- Categories: Book Review, Internet Culture & Etiquette
You’re having a lovely conversation, but think nothing of breaking the mood by grabbing your smartphone to confirm (more likely dispute) something. You’re having a lovely, relaxing cup of coffee at your neighborhood hangout, but can’t sit still when the WiFi dies. You tweet incessantly. Check e-mail like you’re paid to. And until your most recent adventure is posted on Facebook, you feel like somehow, it hasn’t really happened yet.
Sound familiar? If so, you might want to holster it and pick up Daniel Sieberg’s new book, “The Digital Diet: The 4-Step Plan to Break your Tech Addiction and Regain Balance in Your Life.” In this self-help book slash personal narrative, the New York technology reporter outlines a 28-day plan to slim down on the technology that overwhelms our lives.
“There aren’t any caloric labels on technology telling us what’s a healthy amount or what we really need,” says Sieberg. Yet like the food we eat, technology consumption affects our mental, physical, and emotional health ? and not always for the better.
This book is not another woe-is-me-technology-is-evil diatribe (thank goodness). Instead, Sieberg takes a pragmatic approach to dealing with the ever-increasing flood of gadgets, apps, and websites.
But fear not — you won’t have to go cold turkey if you don’t really want to.
“It’s the digital diet, not the digital fast or the digital starvation,” says Sieberg. In the same way that many different kinds of food can be part of a healthy diet, different forms, types, and uses of technology can make up the optimal tech diet. The point is to make that diet a personal decision, not a mindless default.
It starts an awareness of the role technology is actually playing in our lives, the dependencies we build on it, and yes, the harm it may be causing.
For Sieberg, this awareness started in the winter of 2009 at a holiday get-together. His 1,664 Facebook friends and 866 Twitter followers didn’t offer much solace when he could barely remember details about the family and friends standing right in front of him.
“I thought I was this super, uber productive guy who had all the social network profiles, all the devices, and was constantly connected,” says Sieberg. “I realized I had lost the connections that mattered most.”
Lena is a 2011 Wired New York summer intern. She's also an NYU graduate student (SHERP 29).Follow @lenagroeger on Twitter.
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