A survey this year revealed that Australians, on average, spend 10.2 hours a day with interactive digital technologies. And this figure goes up every year.
This is time we don’t get back. And our analog lives, which include everything not digital, shrink in direct proportion.
I recently decided to spend four weeks at sea without access to my phone or the internet, and here’s what I learned about myself, and the digital rat race I was caught in.
Cold Turkey
Until a year or so ago, I was a 10.2 hours a day person. Over the years, dependence on technology and stress had destroyed any semblance of balance in my life – between work and home, or pleasure and obligation.
I wanted to quit, or cut down, at least. Tech “detox” apps such as the time-limiting Screen Time were useless. Even with these, I was still “on”, and just a click away from unblocking Instagram.
So I thought: what about going cold turkey? No screen time at all, 24/7. Was that possible, and what would it feel like?
My commute to work passed the Footscray docks, where container-ships come and go. Passing one day, I wondered if it was possible to go on one of those ships and travel from Melbourne to … somewhere?
Turns out it was. You can book a cabin online and just go. And in what was probably an impulse, I went.
For about four weeks I had no devices, as I sailed solo from West Melbourne to Sin ..
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