Life Online Part 1: The Balance
With many of us spending increasing amounts of time plugged into our laptops and servers, in this first of a two-shot series, Jono Bacon and Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge explore how we balance our online and offline lives, the heath implications, and the challenges that face us with mobile devices and how to get away.
Of course, this shot is just the start of the conversation. What do you think? How much time do you spend online? How do you get away? Have you experienced depression or burnout from being in front of your computer too much? Share your thoughts in the shot comments below…
51 Comments to “Life Online Part 1: The Balance”
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I read somewhere about a good way to get a perspective on this is to imagine looking back on your life in 20 or 30 years time.
Doing this made me realise how important it is to have a balance and spend quality time with family and friends.
No-one ever said on their deathbed “I wish I’d spent more time at the office”, indeed…
A think a large part of finding the right balance is about finding the right tools.
If you live in your inbox (and your Facebook news feed), working reactively as things come along then you’ll find it very difficult to unplug – you’ll constantly be feeling that you might be missing out on something or that you’ve forgotten something.
If on the other hand you have a system which you trust to capture everything you need to do and remind you when it needs doing then it’s much easier to unplug and not be constantly fretting about when you’re going to get your next WiFi fix!
I think the key is let online tools be a part of your life, but not let them run your life. Create a system that you’re happy with that doesn’t require you to be glued to a screen 24/7 waiting for the next morsel of information to come in.
David Allen’s very popular book “Getting Things Done” describes this in detail.
Sounds like an interesting book tola. I’ve requested it from my public library. Thanks for the suggestion.
I second the recommendation of Getting Things Done. Great stuff. It’s all about reducing stress by knowing that you aren’t about to drop or forget something important. And that makes you more effective.
Things get interesting when the online tools feed directly into the real world. Foursquare is probably only the start of this.
It’s all well and good to tell people they should go outside every once in a while, but if you can provide some kind of motivation and social glue to get reclusive geeks at least talking to each other, you might actually accomplish something. I’ve been kicking around a side project along these lines which builds on the Foursquare API…
Cheers for the great topic.
PhD students like myself suffer from this problem, there’s even a comic about it: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1251
I personally do Scottish Country Dancing to get away. In fact the majority of people I dance with are science/computer geeks, so there appears to be some appeal for that sort of person. Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that there are set rules for how to interact with other people and that the dances also follow set patterns and formations.
Interesting: the idea of external hobbies that share a similar mindset with the things that keep you online is a fascinating one!
When I used to do Aikido there were a few other geeks there. It was certainly a way to take you mind off computer/internet stuff as you had to be fully concentrating on what you were doing. The same would apply to many other activities.
I find that when I am at a PC at home or work I like to keep up with RSS/identica/Facebook etc, but the rest of the time I don’t think so much about it. I don’t generally do microblogging or email on my phone. Even if I’m off camping for 2 weeks I don’t really miss having a computer.
I can understand that some people feel socially isolated, but can find like minds on-line in forums or MMPORGs(?). If you feel there is nothing to engage you locally then it would be very attractive to spend all your time on-line.
Like Jono I play guitar and have been trying to find more ways to get out and play with others rather than just messing about at home. That said, I’ve found a very friendly community centred around the Six String Bliss guitar podcasts.
I find that the internet enhances my life, but it’s not all that I do. Having a family helps. Balance is everything.
Physical hobbies = verrrry good.
“People who visited sites like you also enjoyed these real life activities”…
Heh. That’s actually an interesting idea, I think…
Hmm… I am afraid of using ebooks/journal articles/research purely on my computer because I would have to ~sit there~ to pick through all of that.
Also, I’ve found that I work in spurts, in a few ways. During the summer, I end up out. Doing most of my field work, but then during the winter/school semesters I am indoors and more plugged-in doing lab work, writing & coding. When I do research/writing and I am plugged in, I kinda isolate myself with some good coffee & beer for a day or two or weekend (or week) and just hammer it out – hardcore. And then take a break and come up to breath before diving in again.
Its kinda hard not to mix a talk about being plugged-in and overworking the office in general.
And as a side note, I’m not so sure I buy what Jono had said about depression. I think its a convenient argument for nostalgic people/media-outlets who like to grumble about “those damn kids and their internets”. I think alot of it is that we’ve just become more sensitive to depression and peoples’ mental well-being. I’m not convinced that people are depressed because they are online, rather I think it is stress from being overworked in general.
I’m doubtful about the depression bit as well. Sounded like Jono was drawing a causal link between online hours and depression. I think extreme hours online could be a factor in depression but there are many other factors that are found in the same group of people who are online extremely. Too much junk food, overworked, lack of a purpose, no exercise etc. The unplugging philosophy could help treat all of these, as was said in the shot. When Surveying people or doing a study, logged online hours could just act as a proxy for these other behaviors that together cause depression.
As for the depression thing, take a look at http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Depression/12702 – it would not surprise me for when second if we can throw computer use into the mix with TV and video games.
I agree about questioning the depression. I haven’t looked at Jono’s link yet, but one thing that gets forgotten sometimes is that due to increased mental health awareness and to some slight level lessening of stigma (especially stigma of depression specifically), depression is getting diagnosed across the board more often now than it used to be. Some of the increase in diagnosis may just be because people who were depressed in the past didn’t seek treatment and therefore wouldn’t have been in any stats.
LOL… I’m a computer geek, looking back 20 years from now I was a computer geek working in a software house… looking back 30 years I was computer geek in school… Loved every minute of it!
I think what I’m trying to say is that it’s not online life that’s pushing people into nervous breakdowns, it’s the pressure of modern life…
I constantly struggle with the balance between getting on with stuff and reading the latest news. I deliberately limit myself to a desktop precisely for the reasons said in the show – if I’m not in front of it then I’m not online.
I do spend time looking at android phones and then wonder if I’ll just get sucked in more and miss out on the in depth focus on time with friends or other activities. I seem to be unusual in ignoring text messages when I’m with friends and not looking at them until a reasonable gap in our interaction. Let alone sitting around with friends who are liable to open a laptop at any excuse and then proceed to check on facebook and email while it’s open. I’m definitely not keen on the multitasking way of life, I like to concentrate on one thing at a time. Ho hum.
I guess a large part of it is discipline, and in this there is a lot in common with the issues covered in the “Dawn of the Distracted” shot.
I find it incredibly rude if someone I’m in a social situation with takes time out to reply to messages on their phone. Fortunately none of my current friends do that. None of us have Androids or iPhones as being students we can’t really afford them. I wonder how things will change when we start earning some money.
I find it difficult to balance all the things I want to do here lately.
My kids swear “Ubuntu stole my mom!”
Balance has been the source of many discussions lately. One of the things we (me, my hubby, and my kids) talked about was that my computer will be closed from the time my kids finish their homework until they go to bed.
Ubuntu did steal their mum, and they can’t have her back.
I have spent the last 20 years trying to get to grips with a vicious case of Bi-polar disorder. One thing I can’t stress strongly enough is the need for sleep. Although diet, medication, psychotherapy, good relationships and so on play their part. If you want good mental health, then you need to sleep. You need a very dark room. You need a very quiet room. You need not to be woken up. And you need sleep EVERY night. this more than anything seems to correlate with how successfully I deal with my disorder.
While I don’t suffer from bi-polar issues, I really agree with not only the importance of getting enough sleep, but also getting good sleep.
My wife and I spent some time investing in getting a good mattress, mattress cover, sheets and blankets and making sure we don’t leave the TV on when we fall asleep. It made a huge difference to how well we feel and how productive we are.
And by the way, If you think you might be having even a mild mental health issue – SEE YOUR DOCTOR! or to put it another way, SEE YOUR DOCTOR NOW!! Doctors used to be really crap with mental issues, but they are coming on leaps and bounds. They can often help a lot more than you might have heard.
The one thing I do to get unplugged is go for a walk, leave the cell phone, music player any gadget at home or in the car. A hike in the woods with the cell phone ringing takes the piss out of it, I have taken to cutting the cell phone off at night. I have a friend who you can text any time of the day even sleep hours and they will respond. That same friend wonders why they can not sleep worth a damn, they are always plugged in. I have resisted getting a smart phone 1. for the $30 extra it cost a month 2. do I really need to see who has posted on twitter/identi.ca or google “kumquat” while I am shopping? I am at a computer quite a bit of the day, so doing things away from the computer/gadgets not plugged in, using different parts of the brain. Making art, exercising, fixing something around the house will often help me think clearer when I get back to the computer.
I use online storage for some data mostly things I want synced with a few computers. I am a bit paranoid about having all of my data on the “cloud”, certain data I do not want online or even need Internet service to access. I think online storage is just another tool to be used, this quote comes to mind “don’t use a hammer to fasten a screw” . We always hear this or that is going to solve all of our computing problems about the next big thing. In the end we using some of the new and some the old. Any how I like tinkering with the actual computer messing about with the config files changing out whatever piece of hardware that is needed( or I want) that is half the fun!
firstly, there are no sheep called derick, as a shepherd i know. second the government here has sorted the outside thing for the smokers in the community by forcing them outside to mix some fresh air with their nicotone. sleep is great though zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I spend a lot of time online but I make sure to take some “me time” not doing any work. The one thing that being a big nerd does is move a lot of your focus in a different direction to your non nerd friends and its important not to cut yourself off and have a nice mix of the two to keep yourself in check I think.
I think getting things done quicker online can help avoid computer related burnout. So I find things like gwibber help me not look at twitter too often. And liferea stops me from browsing all the different planets for interesting stuff.
I agree in part, but often when people find quicker ways to do things, they fill the time they saved with more shit. That is not a good road to head down.
Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that if you were stressed before, you got more efficient, did more stuff and are still stressed, that’s not much of an improvement. But no, in the sense that if you aren’t stressed, and get more efficient, why not use that time to achieve more?
Gerv
Wow, this shot really speaks to me. I agree that unplugging and spending more time offline in the real world is very important. I experimented briefly with a ban on using my computer between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m.; I may go back to that, especially as it encouraged me to go out for a run during that time (I’m self-employed so mostly set my own schedule).
I’m also trying to avoid using TweetDeck or other apps that notify me constantly of new updates. I remember when catching up on friends’ blogs every few days was enough; now people expect constant updates from Twitter, Facebook, IM, etc. Enough is enough…
Every time I unplug, my batteries run down. I once left my dorm room to attend my class on Diff. Eq. and was so tired by the time I returned I could barely calculate the square of a hypotenuse. Life off-line also suffers from analog dis-info syndrome, where one is led to believe that their perceptions are accurate, only to later find that perceptions were influenced by cross-over communications, or bad channel bleed through. Besides, will as representation is reality as it exists in any paradigm.
Jono and Aq say we are spending more time on line than is good for us, and then urge us to go on line to their web site and discuss this idea … I take it you’re trying to kill us.
I think that a lot of the people who spend all their time twittering or denting are the same sort who 20 years ago used to spend all their time with a phone stuck in the ear talking about nothing. If you go back even further, some people used to spend their days listening in on the party line so they would know all the dirty secrets in their neighbourhood.
The technology has changed, but I’m not convinced that people have changed that much. On the other hand, I don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account and I don’t know anyone who has one either.
That’s a really interesting point, mg. I wonder if we have a chronic set of personalities that just exercise their oddities using different mediums over the years. What do you think, folks?
As I think about it some more, I think what has happened is that the new media has lowered the “cost” (in multiple ways) of keeping in touch (or gossipping, or whatever people do).
Before e-mail existed I used to send letters by writing them out with pen and paper, putting them in an envelope with a stamp, and then putting them in the (real) mail box. That took a lot of effort though, so you often did it out of a sense of obligation rather than whim. You also put some effort in to trying to say something worth while. Getting a letter was often a memorable event and you would save them. Now I get e-mails all the time from people I now, but too few of them say anything worth reading.
The low cost of communications has it’s negative side in more than one way. Before e-mail was common I got precisely one Nigerian 419 letter that was written by hand on paper and sent to me in an envelope by mail. I saved it to show to people because I thought it was so funny that anyone would send something like that. Now I get them via e-mail all the time (even with my ISP blocking most of them) and they’re no longer so funny.
The cost of sending communications has gone down, so the volume has increased. One of the things we need to deal with that is a way of lowering the cost of dealing with communications that we receive.
I think you’re right that we have a need to feel we are in touch with other people, and that some people feel this need more than others. However, too much of a good thing can be bad for you, just like too much food, or too much “rest” (lack of exercise).
For some people this is more of a problem than for others. I don’t have a Twitter (or Identica) account, and I have no desire for one. If I am working on a problem, hours can go by without me realising how much time has passed.
For people who really feel that need to stay in touch though, I think what they need is some way of “metering” how much information they receive. It’s like being on a diet. You need to have some sense about what types of and how much information you “eat” instead of gorging yourself on whatever is available. The desire for more will never stop, but you have to find ways of dealing with that desire. You could come up with technological means to help deal with it, but ultimately the solution has to start with realising there is a problem. I think though that some people will never really learn to deal with it.
There are a few things you should always write using fountain pen and proper paper: wedding acceptances, thankyou notes and love letters.
Gerv
Letters to your daughter, too.
I am not plugged in all the time as I only have my macbook and an old nokia phone which is literally used as a phone although I do use the calendar and notes – but as they are basic I tend to only use them when I really need to.
My Ipod on the other hand is either in my ears or in my pocket with the earphones hanging up over my top all the time…..
Balance is crucial – the same with anything, drink-drugs-food whatever if you to it too much or in some cases depending on your personality it will lead to bad things.
I admit that I’m having a very hard time unplugging for more than a day (if that). There’s quite a lot of anxiety that I might come back to an overflowing inbox and feed reader. While there’s bound to be a lot of noise, there are almost certainly items that are actually relevant and important – so sooner or later, I’ll have to dig through that pile anyway. The longer I unplug, the more there is to catch up on…
It is too easy to become caught up in a cycle of reacting to an ever growing amount of information sources and things that you must check/read every day. My most productive days at work are when I switch email off and do what I need to do.
Whether it is online or offline, it is important to have balance in your life. There is a difference between committed to something and being addicted. If you’re committed to playing a sport then you would be dissappointed to miss a session, but if you addicted then you would never miss a session – at almost any cost
I agree. I sat down and assessed all the mediums I need to care about in my own work, and I switched some off them off for a few hours and noticed two things:
I suspect many people break and load their email clients back up when they feel their first sense of being disconnected, complete with excuses of “I just can’t go off the grid like that”.
What do you think, folks?
to qoute merlin mann
”if you’re checking for new email every five minutes, that’s 24,000 times a year”
so thats 24,000 ish minutes wasted – if you add it to igoogle or some other way to get notified when you actualy get mail you get things done as opposed to getting time wasted.
It is not a matter of unplugging – it is being connected without feeling like being a slave to the machine (to use a terribly corny phrase….)
I definitely spend a lot of time online, but i’ve never had a bad feeling when i don’t have the chance to. I don’t go online on holidays, don’t even miss it.
The main difference to a lot of people i meet online is probably, that i don’t work with/on computers, i work with people. And exactly this was an important reason when i chose my career, if my hobby is with computers and my job is with computers i’ll probably do nothing much else. So i chose it to be my hobby.
So going online in my free time is my hobby, and before that was possible i read books, watched TV or consumed any other available media. For me it’s just a shift in tools, not in the action/way itself.
On average I spend about 4 hours a day on my PC… is that unhealthy? What amount of time is considered “healthy”??
I think being on the PC so much has had a negative effect on me in the way im kinda socially retarded… or socially unskilled.
Also it seems to affect my brain thoughts… I used to be able to think about things clearly but now it feels kinda fuzzy/blurry inside my head.
I wonder is this actually due to overuse of computers or something else… how does one know?
Fuzzy thinking and forgetfulness are potentially symptoms of a common affliction among the socially awkward: depression.
It’s something worth considering, anyway. Like someone else said, see your doctor! It can’t hurt. Recent research suggests that pharmaceuticals are no better than placebo in mild cases of depression; and simple lifestyle changes like exercise do actually help.
I am certainly not a doctor, but I would not immediately assume that if your thoughts are a little fuzzy, that you may be depressed. There could be a hundred other things, including stress, burnout, tiredness, an incomplete diet or something else. If in doubt, go to the docs.
I don’t know why people have to feel “plugged in” all the time. I have a facebook and twitter account but I only check them a couple times a week. It takes a little while to get caught up, but I’ve found if I start checking it all the time, I spend WAY too much time online. RSS feeds are like crack too, so I limit how much I check my GOogle Reader as well. I think people have to have limits in their lives. My brother in law is a programmer and he spends all day at work online, then he comes home and spends the rest of the evening at home online as well instead of spending that time with his family. He has no hobbies. In the summer time, he will get together with some of his church friends and play roller hockey but only about once a month. He probably spends upwards of 90 hours a week online. That’s no exaggeration. I think if your computer skills are pretty high, you can optimize how you spend your time online and use that time efficiently, even basic skills like being able to type fast. I have found it important to have hobbies that are not computer related. I play guitar and bass, and play paintball. That’s just what I’m into. Paintball is fun and keeps me accountable to staying somewhat physically active. If you don’t stay active you will be really sore after a day of paintball. Relationships are important and I personally believe that no social networking website will substitute person to person interaction in the flesh and blood. One thing that really pisses me off is when you are trying to have a conversation with someone in person and all they do is stand there staring at their phone, texting, twittering, facebooking, youtubing etc… VERY inconsiderate.
Great points, I entirely agree with you.
Ok, after thinking a little more on the subject I think that what it boils down to is that too much of a good thing is not a good thing. If I play my guitar or bass too much, I get burnt out the same way I do with computers. I think that the internet/social media is such a big topic because so many people are into it. Everybody has a facebook page or twitter account.
One thing that this shot didn’t mention at all was the flip side: there are people for whom the internet is the only social life they can have due to health reasons.
I’ll admit I’m highly plugged in. Not so much that I don’t (willingly) unplug for holidays and other periods of time, but enough that I spend most of my day online. But, I also have no other real way of having a social life due to my physical impairments. If I didn’t have the internet, I’d go to work and go home and not interact with pretty much anyone outside of work and not have a way of meeting new people because by the time I get home from work every night I pretty much can’t sit up. And I’m actually relatively lucky in that I can force myself through work 5 days a week. Many people I know don’t even get out that much. The internet for us has opened the rest of the world to us in a way that we didn’t have 20 years ago and, to a certain extent, even 5-10 years ago.
I’m not saying it’s not good to have time away from the internet, but I feel it’s important to mention that not everyone has the choice to go out to have an offline life and for those of us who can’t, often the internet actually reduces a lot of the negative impact and things like depression are actually less likely to occur.
(And I’d like to point out that commonality doesn’t always mean causeality so it’s a bit chicken and egg to try to decide if depression shows up more often in people who have heavy tv/internet/video game usage because of their usage or if those people would have been depressed anyway.)
The problem I have is that, in essence, I get paid for my hobby, as I suspect a lot of geeks do. Even before I started doing this professionally, I was fascinated by the world of computers. It was the late 70s, and computers were still contained in glassed off, very cold rooms, with terminals scattered around the building, and men who would hand you your output at a window after you had submitted your job the Oracle in the cold room.
That grew into a profession, eventually, and now, the Interwebs (is that “teh Interwebs,” Aq?) have taken over much of our lives. Society seems to be trying to shove more and more of it into the Tubes…Television, telephone, entertainment in general, is coming to the internet. Gaming on the computer has always been attractive because it was so much sexier than real life. By that I mean that I was into combat flight simulators back in the day, and it was nice, because the sim would encapsulate all of the excitement of flying about, dropping bombs on virtual people who were trying to turn you into air pollution, all without having all of the boring bits along the way. I was, at the time, in a virtual squadron, and our virtual CO was an actual F-15 pilot. So he had us doing some of the boring bits where he could, like actually flying the traffic patterns and what not…But I digress.
I am afraid that we are just seeing the beginning of this trend. As telecommuting becomes more the norm, people will have a more difficult time “shutting it off,” because not only will it be gaming and entertainment that are on the computer, but work will live on the same set of platforms. My wife has complained when I have had positions where I could telecommute that I had a hard time shutting down the office. This is, I think, because there is no physical division between the office and the home projects…Like a commute home. Sitting in the car, driving in DC traffic, whether you like it or not, you are unplugged.
I think just like RSI, it won’t be seriously considered until it becomes a problem.
You know, it’s really funny that I just listened to this today. I’ve been telling my fiance how I feel I need to get out of the house and away from the computer and interact with people. It’s become so status quo to come home and sit in front of the computer; not only because it’s what I do for a living and for college, but because it’s what I enjoy doing.
Lately I’ve been finding myself very discontent with sitting in front of the PC all day long and it’s making me very exhausted both mentally and physically.
To counteract this, a few of my geeky friends and I decided we would have our once a week gathering and just hang out, play non-video games, go to the movies, play cards, etc.
I’ve been addicted to being online since I was like 12 and we first got Internet in the house and I’m finding myself more and more willing to “un-plug” on the weekends. I’m even trying to stay analog when taking notes in classes as having the netbook in front of me has the tendency to create distraction from the lecture. All in all, I’d say that everyone who wants to be successful with being a techy/it guy/sys admin/ programmer/ ubuntunut should step back take a few breaths or a half an hour and ride a bike or something. It works wonders for my mental focus and clarity. It also allows me the chance to step back and think about anything that I might need to adjust to further succeed.
In an increasingly digital age, analog is man’s best escape.