The Life of a Daniel

Offline in February

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:59:00 -0800

I've been noticing something lately. Most of my interactions with people have been occurring online. Facebook and Twitter have replaced face-to-face hang outs. I've also been keeping an eye on how much time I spend messing around with social media. It consumes a good portion of my day. So for the month of February, I'm going to be offline, (mostly. See below for exceptions.)

I'm not knocking social media at all. I love what it has done, and what it continues to do to help me keep in touch with folks I can't see face-to-face on a regular basis. It's great to be able to see peoples' lives progress, even if they live hundreds of miles away. Hell, I even enjoy the seemingly mundane status updates and tweets.

I've read, (and you probably have, too,) about the effects social media has had on society as a whole. Some of us, (myself included,) are so eager to post things in real-time that we completely forget to just enjoy the moment. For me, it happens most with photography. Before the iPhone, I would shoot with either my little point-and-shoot or my DSLR. Nothing would be posted online until I got home for the night and had time to transfer the photos from my camera to the computer. Now, I leave the point-and-shoot at home in favor of the iPhone camera, and I stop what I'm doing after taking a photo to make sure I upload it somewhere. I'm not taking the time I did in the "old" days to actually think about a photo, write a decent caption, or even edit appropriately. I've even noticed myself doing this with the photos I do take with the DSLR. I'm in such a hurry to post them, I don't even wait until I get home--I load them on the iPad, edit them as much as possible there, then upload them as soon as I find a WiFi connection. I'm going to have en entire month to mull over the photos I take in February, without that nagging feeling that I need to quit editing and start posting. Posting photos in real-time also forces me to ignore or multi-task whomever I happen to be with long enough to confirm the upload.

How many times, when you've been out with friends, have you looked around the table to see everyone on their phone. They're texting, tweeting, facebooking, etc. instead of actually communicating with the people right in front of them. I do it all the time. I'll meet a friend for dinner or a beer, and we'll spend the majority of the time on our phones or laptops. I can't remember the last time I actually had a meaningful conversation with someone that wasn't interrupted with, "hang on, I need to tweet that." I'm just as guilty as anyone. I pick up my phone every 30 seconds or so to read/post something.

Remember the days of "dumb" phones? When texting was one of those things that only the really geeky folks did? I had a Sanyo 8100 (one of my all-time favorite phones,) when texting started becoming somewhat popular. I remember telling myself there was no way I was going to try to write something, even with T9, when I could just dial a number and tell someone what I wanted to say. Now, I have a measly 450-minute talk plan because most of my communication these days is done via text messaging. I actually *talked* to people back in the old days. Creepy, right? Talking?

So, for the month of February, I'm going dark, (mostly.) If you catch me online, call me out on it.

Rather than list all the things that will be off-limits, here are the things I'm allowing myself to use during this month:

+ Phone (for voice calls)

+ Text messages (not changing my cell phone plan, and if I ban texting, my overage charges for talk minutes will be insane.)

+ Email

+ Skype/iChat for video conferencing (not giving up face-time with the family.)

+ Foursquare (I know, I know. But it takes 5 seconds when I walk into a place, and doesn't distract from the moment.) *I'm actually on the fence about this one... May stay away from it... We'll see.

+ Camera (I'll still be taking photos, I just won't be posting them during the month.) *365 and 52-week project photos may still get posted.

On February 29th, since it's an extra day in the year, I plan on uploading everything from the month. All at once. :) It'll be like a digital up-chuck of everything I've shot and/or written over the course of 28 days.

There have been doubts by people who know me that I'll make it a full four weeks. Actually, the most generous thinks I'll crack in three days. It should be interesting. Once I fire off this post, I'm deleting the social media apps off my phone, and turning off any email notifications from Twitter/Facebook/etc. History has taught me that resisting temptation is not one of my strong suits, so removing the tempting apps is my best recipe for success.

Who knows, maybe I'll use the free time to actually read a book. A real book. Not just a technical manual.

So, if you're in the Portland area, call/email me and lets go grab a beer. I promise to pay attention and will not multi-task you.

The Life of a Daniel

Offline in February

Barbie Cleavage Cam vs. Canon 7D [video]

BookBook iPhone case from twelvesouth

Self-regulation

Of all the photos to steal…

Ads for Radio Shack on BestBuy's website

Friday humor+music

Upside down ice fishing

Hammerhead's Birthday

Rolling in...

Dirt Roads

Grab entire web pages with Skitch for Mac

SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill

Facebook for iPhone #fail

SOPA and the Student

This is what a winter forecast is supposed to look like

So much for snow...

Spartacus: Vengeance

Cut the Rope on IE

Why Facebook Timeline is fun