The game plan to approach technology like a cautious soldier treading with great focus and finesse.
An expedition called life. As we traverse through this pivotal existence we must keep the mental ball of yarn — the mind in immaculate shape, because there are quite bleak chances to find another brain lying around to be replaced real quick on demand.
Ideas like uploading consciousness and seeking immortality in a simulated virtual environment, are ostensibly birthed by an overgrown man child playing one of the free world games like GTA 5 too long and fantasizing walking through the television into the game, to find a world where perverse and psychopathic actions don't demand ‘consequences’. Rather, in their ideal world apart from the Creator, going about like a whimsical creature brings about rewards, immortality and a strange immunity from rationale.
That being said, I've had my rough and tumble with technology. (I'm a late 90's kid). I've seen the inception of the diamond precious “white box computer” when it arrived all the way to the bread slice thin “LED TV”, that's perceived to be the value of a tissue paper these days.
In the easy accessibility of these devices as though it were glued to my hand, how does one navigate?
The answer would be, to center our mind on not solving the problem to "Get Connected" to this gigantic deceitful web of relentless and tireless connectivity. But to essentially work towards “Disconnecting” from time to time and embrace the freedom from the illusory black screen.
Our mind. It's a high frequency electromagnetic processor. It can "THINK"! The devices were brought about by people who could "THINK".
This mind is not designed to chew mental candy with a flood of YouTube Shorts and frivolous videos. It's designed to focus, hunt and gather. To survive the real world, 'cause in this game of Super Mario, there's only One life, my friend.
Our great grandparents would think we're crazy to be swimming inside the limited rectangular black ocean taped to a wall, visually arrested, perfectly vulnerable to any ill-fated stroke that may befall.
It would be quite hilarious if we could measure the reaction time between a 90-year-old and the youth of today. You'd find higher alertness, poise and patience in the old individual, as his stories are circled around nature and he truly embraced the pace of a slow life. The term "slow" is ridiculous, it should be more like “real-time” speeds, as opposed to the swerving and gliding mind of a young youth.
The mind needs a hiatus. Sure, use the phone all you want, but stimulate your mind by inspired action.
Action to Create and not to Consume.
Consume with Caution.
Harness Technology and subdue it as it seeks to get you addicted.
Now...taking you through the life and times of my own personal metamorphosis with technology.
Montage of my Technological habits from 2018 to 2023.
2018:
1. I traveled on a corporate journey to Bangkok. I met my wife Anisha, and we also earned our first few bucks together.
2. I obviously had to hit the coins in an Apple store.
We walked to the counter, with a sincere and conservatively calculated mind uttering the much-awaited words:
"SHOW ME THE LATEST IPHONE AND APPLE WATCH…....!!”
It wasn't time for window shopping...it was time to swipe the card mate. We walked away with 1 phone and a couple watches on the wrist, with an upgrade to Anisha's iPhone 7 to iPhone XS.
Ironically even the phone screamed EXCESS!
3. The phone worked like a kitten to my hand, I couldn't let go of it. The phone was where the current me would stop and harness the tech to "Create and Vend out” personal artistic brush strokes in authoring new blogs and conceptual ideas. That's the man of today.
4. But back then I was obviously turning my washroom into a club with my Bluetooth speakers, my living room into a sphere of radiating signals with all that tech. It was hilarious. Even my watch was pointlessly accomplice to all this techno drama…I'm not sure what the watch even did…the only thing I remember was I used to change the 100th abusive hip hop song I played as I glided about in my room supercilious about my invincibility.
My watch...my watch.. I could now change the song on my wrist while I drove.. wheee!....
Anisha's watch was always off due to her great commitment to get it charged. I was like a home-based tech tycoon keeping all the devices charged, and her watch was always the deadbeat device reaching my tech clinic to be revived.
5. I went on to splurge on the NEXT BIG DEVICE.
Are you ready?!
'Cause I eccentrically was!
Swiped a card at the MBK mall in Bangkok..bought me a PS4 and FIFA 19 in 2018 and thought I made it! I got an extra controller just for the heck of it! I liked the electric blue color it dawned.
6. I was like a kid with the key to the candy shop. There was no stopping us. I was always using my Apple earphones whilst juggling them with another Bluetooth headset that looked quite edgy. I behaved as though I had a bunch of extra brains in my closet and took my current one for granted big time.
But to walk you through the "other side", there was the virtuous me…
There was A Game Plan to Mr. And Mrs. Can back then too.
It was a crisp calculation to be occupied and "SAVE UP".
I learned a big splurge circumvents the trickling "Urges" ahead.
1. My wife and I frequented the gym more often.
2. We used our devices quite poignantly for work and brainstorming sessions.
3. We didn't quite find ourselves missing the social life as we limited any and all avoidable informal college hotel room parties and what not...
4. The phone and online PS4 FIFA package kept me locked in but a tad bit spiritually drained than I should've been.. (but hey atleast I wasn't intoxicated beyond my wits not knowing the way to the washroom).
5. The purpose, back then too, was to focus, but the path I chose was technological hypnosis and complacent gymmimg.
6. We were still ahead of the curve...yet “good” isn't “GREAT”. We had to mutate into the next most disciplined and dedicated selves, but a little hint...
7. The path you are seeking to find isn't on the fast lane. It's anything but... it's to slow down and be thoughtful.
Fast forward 2023. New and improved.
Where are we now "technologically"?
1. We love our devices! But hate our inclination to be frivolous on them…yet we have come a long way.
2. We don't consume content and revoked any and all Netflix and Amazon memberships a long time back...it's a trickling drainage in our funds and a ghastly confusion with a flood of questionably authentic content.
Replaced the static phony atmosphere of a gym, with home-based workout routines, to be consistent and pragmatic in this expedition of life.
The dumbbell can't control me, 'cause I don't need it.' I don't need to find the gym frantically as my workouts don't depend on the machines and toys available in a gym.
We also do not have any social media accounts. We take photos for ourselves, our website and our (inactive) LinkedIn accounts.
Needless to proclaim, we sold our handcuffing Apple watches, as it was nothing but vain conspicuous consumption on our part.
3. We look at the screen as a portal. A new dimension that we must cautiously tread upon. There are mental snakes in the tunnel with all that venomous content seeking to rewire our minds to turn us into lower frequency bots. The big machinery doesn’t love us, remember?
4. We utilize our devices only to Create and get Educated.
5. I don't need Hollywood or Bollywood to tell me how to think.. I don't like feeling like a puppet or a pawn being seasoned to be sheared and profited upon. I respect myself and I decided I'm going to be technologically selfish.
6. The old quote: “How you do anything is how you do everything”.
I'd like to do everything intensely sparkled with great tenacity, focus and grit. There's no time for FIFA where I shoot bicycle kicks while EA sports laughs their way to the bank at my passivity.
7. I'd go for a walk with my wife, take a freekick at a target to feel more in tandem with this great grand creation gifted to us by the ultimate Creator. These 3rd-hand simulated worlds are but noise and distortion to the human soul, and a blatant insult to this spiritual experience of life.
8. We both don't own earphones. Nor do we own a television. Just our phones and a laptop. We're 30% less likely to foolishly die because of being inattentive…just kidding.
9. Own no gaming consoles.
10. Have not seen a theater screen in a couple years.
Disclaimer:
The wired-out mind drained out of its wits needs a break, my friend.
You don't need to abruptly press the breaks, but you can gradually hit an equilibrium, setting decrees to your relationship with synthetic screen boxes.
Like a car.
For me, I came to find that a mind that's centered, always having the time to blitz and charge, ready to conquer, wins. It's a locked in, straight shooting mind, that's not turning to the right or left before it thrust its mental sword through a problem or a challenge. It aces almost everything because it was richly endued with what it needed until... a notification popped up spiraling down this blitzing mind into "Battery Low". It's a mind that's quite gratified by the slowness and programmed for the long haul. It's a car at 30 kmph that can soak in all its surroundings and has no pressure breaking down the visual data in the real time world, exercising memory and other faculties in a state of equilibrium.
Diametrically…
A mind that's high on tech is of an intoxicated and tweaky state. Like an addict scratching himself, with jitters, lacking patience. His mental car is swerving through anything but the real-world street. He's skipping realms before he fizzles out into oblivion. With 5 TV shows a day and many hours of gaming, texting and what not. Such a person is dangerously vulnerable to being knocked out by the wind in his direction as he's spiritually deficient.
Name of the Game: Energy Balance.
If I give you 24 hours of energy, the age-old commonsensical stratagem is obvious…you must not spend it all in one place, to avoid being fatally drained.
You must designate a maximum of 3 hours of screen time and like you'd leave your phone on charge, let your mind charge by immersing yourself in a park, feeling some real grass, walking, exercising to recharge.
Boundaries.
If you set an hour of gaming.. go for it! Enjoy that hour.. but post that don't embark to watch a movie and fatigue that little brain that needs a recharge.
Replace a toxic habit with a better one.
Thought experiment.. the next time you go for some time-out with your family, replace every toxic trait, one at a time. It doesn't need to be done in one effortless stride. But small crawls lead to giant leaps of paramount successes.
Try replacing:
1. Fizzy soft drinks with real fruit juice.
2. Deep fried and frozen junk from restaurant chains with the less malignant South/North Indian cuisine. Western and Chinese cuisine tends to be quite deficient in nutrition.. because of the ingredients used in India.. it's not easily locally sourced and formulated. The Sauces and cheese could definitely cause a little bit of a stir-fry in your stomach.
3. Keeping your phone in your bag to avoid tuning out of reality. Staying present and focused on your time out. Taking a few photos at the end to attempt to preserve the memory, if you will, but don’t jump about losing out on “living in the moment” to get a heap load of photos you won’t even upload or cherish in a few days time.
"How you do anything is how you do everything."
Eliminating this blessing called Technology would be haphazard on your part not letting you seize opportunities.
Circumventing the roadblock of being addicted would be an ideal way of dealing with the issue.
1. The process of elimination
2. Maintaining boundaries
3. Purposefully tuning in
Are some quick ways to flip the switch.
Time for a quiz!
1. I've written this piece on my phone.. what should I ideally be doing...
A. Watching a movie on the big screen.
B. Playing some FIFA on a gaming console.
C. Shutting all my devices for a couple of hours and going for a walk.
Answer. C.
Your mind is a knife... it must be periodically sharpened and charged up to be above the cut.
Screentime
// poetry
Grateful for the next blink
Many agents out to blunt the mental sword
Chess is a detestable monotonous world view
Overturn this lifeless bondaging matrix board.
The mind is a sword
Needs to be in its sheath to power up
For the blessing of wisdom to be well gathered,
There need not be weakening cracks on the mental cup.
The screens are hypnotic shades
We enter the portal and the door shuts behind
The screen claims to decrypt the world's esoteric secrets
Promising surreal vision but leaving you blind.
What is life?
The time between your first and last blink.
The screens in between drain your bloodshot glassy eyes,
A drained soul shall inevitably sink.
