Living life unplugged
I just came across this term ‘unplugged’ used in a different way. I mean we know of unplugged music but having an ‘unplugged day’?
According to a tech geek, Ms Ariel Meadow Stallings, living your life unplugged means taking a day off when you are completely cut off from any technology, and she finds that it ‘forces her to re-engage with the real world’.
Interestingly, she blogged about how she decided to regain control of her life from being a tech addict and decided to spend “52 nights unplugged this year“.
In a way, having such a tech-detox plan may not be a bad thing for tech and blog junkies out there. There’s been anough criticism about how society is now engaging in virtual worlds than in the real world. I mean, take a look at the homeboys of Taiwan which I wrote about in a previous post and it’s enough to give anyone the creeps.
And recent reports reveal that Singapore is truly a SMS nation, with many Singaporean youths preferring to sms and have online interactions with each other than face-to-face ones. Many cite convenience as a reason for doing that. But I do wonder if all this has an impact on their social skills. Well, in a way, I believe this will affect their social skills, but to what extent?! I have personally encountered youths like that - totally reticent and socially inept in person but wonderfully eloquent online. It’s almost like a Jekyll and Hyde situation.
Also, with all the talk about blogging hazards, switching off the PC to switch on to real life may not be bad for one’s physical, mental and emotional health.
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Yeah, I pretty much have a nephew who actually “talks” to you much more online than in person.
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for the comment. Wondering if this is the new breed of society?!
It can be easier to connect online…and one reason can be that you have time to think before you write. In one on one conversation, you have to be able to “think on your feet”, while on the nets, you can revise until you like what your posts states. I just revised several parts of this post, lol! However, even with the use of emoticons, meanings are harder to convey with only words and not the help of voice inflection and body language. If I had my druthers, I’d take face to face over electronic communication any day. But time and space prevents that from being possible most of the time. I think time and space have alot to do with the popularity of using ‘new media’.
Yup, time and space - these are some of the constraints faced. Take us for example, if it weren’t for Web 2.0 and social media, I’d prob never have gotten to know you or communicate with you.
In a way, perhaps, part of effective communication in this new era is knowing when to use, what and when. In a way, hasn’t that always been a part of effective communication? Just that now, the range of medium to use has expanded.