Urban Nomad - No Phone... No Direction
More and more people are aspiring to live a somewhat nomadic/ hippie lifestyle to escape the trap that is "consumerism". However, most aren't actually wiling to completely unplug from the world simply because of it's inconvenience... myself included. That was until my phone suffered a premature death and I was forced to spend several days without a phone until my new one had arrived.
Prior to this, I had been slowly weening myself off of social media and focusing more on the physical world, mainly reading or meditating in my spare time, so the disconnect wasn't as challenging as I expected.
However, one major downside that I noticed was just how dependent urban areas are on technology in the 21st century. The city of London almost assumes that everyone knows exactly where they're going and what they're doing. For example, I've noticed that street signs and city maps are scarce, and at most bus stops, the real-time timetables are either non existent or unavailable. This is something that most people seem to look past considering that have at their leisure, any piece of information that they could possibly need in the palm of their hands.
So, when my new phone arrives, I'm sure the novelty of mobile phones and my gratitude for the efficiency factor of them will be restored. It's clear to me that the technology isn't the problem, it's the way in which people use them. Spending hours on social media or on mindless videos filling our echo-chambers with confirmation bias, and unfortunately there are billions of pounds being invested into capitalising on that psychological floor (#Marketing).
I believe the best way to use these powerful technologies is as a compliment to your life, and not as a vice to escape it. We still have a long way to go until we develop a generation of people who share that same mentality, as perhaps if we do get there, we'll be able to connect on a much deeper level.