This is what it looked like:
This was my first gadget, which we discussed during an informal pioneers meeting. The time when you would call a specific number and the person on the other side writes and sends a message.
Ohohohooooo!!! I recall going jogging with a discman and trying to hold it level while jogging so it wouldnāt skip the disc! I never really mastered it but it was fun tryingā¦
I feel there is much health and wellness to be gained by simply connecting in with the rhythms of nature - regarding sleep especially being up and down with the sun has worked really well for me all of my life (I seem to need HEAPS of sleep to function).
There is something quite blissful about being up before most other humans. This morning I was blessed to share some quiet time with some horses - I stroked them, they snuggled with me, I listened to their gentle grass munching and we watched the sunrise together. It was a present and pleasant experience - what a joy nature is!
This is a really interesting thread. Thanks, @aleksander Aleksander, for the link. It just so happens that Iām middle-aged and I vividly remember what life was like without smartphones.
I also remember my first mobile phone (a Nokia banana phone with a sliding cover and an extendable antennaāI was so proud of it!). My son never experienced those times, and itās incredibly funny when I tell him about it. I feel like a dinosaur then, and he has a good laugh, asking sarcastic questions like if we had television or printing presses back then. By the way, do your kids react similarly?
Oh, hereās a picture titled āJustyna in the wild.ā Half-jokingly, half-seriously. I still believe that itās all about finding the right balance. For me, the real luxury is having the freedom to decide: I can work in the forest (thanks to technological advancements), I can gaze at the sky, read a book, plant trees, tend to the garden, or even play a game with my son. Of course, I can also spend time scrolling through social media. I think the true luxury lies in having the choice.
Yes, itās a video game.
As I mentioned before, for me, the luxury lies in the ability to choose and decide when and how I want to use technology. Our son doesnāt use social media, and thatās his choice. Even when heās in the middle of the forest, he still has the opportunity to connect with his friends. They have weekly RPG sessions (not video games) where they meet online with a Game Master and their friends (one of them lives in Sweden). They roll virtual dice and embark on fantastic adventures, creating the storyline with their imagination. Isnāt that a luxury as well?
I find it funny because I also enjoy spending time in nature and require long hours of sleep. When my sleep pattern is normalized, I tend to go to sleep around 10:00 pm and wake up past 7:00 amāthatās 9 hours of sleep. Sleeping less, in effect, makes me feel tired in the early afternoon hours and onward.
@galtions, just out of curiosity, do you also have a really fast metabolism?
@justyna_latoszek I admire your commitment to balance & yes, itās all about doing whatās right for you.
Since weāre on the topic of camping Hereās how I find balanceā¦
I am not a person who likes to ārough itā in the outdoors, so when I have to go camping, itās gotta be ālike home.ā
Speaking of offline:
What do you guys think?
Why yes, I do. Thatās a curious question! Why do you ask?
So I live on an island - I wonder if it could become phone free too? Itās called Australiaā¦ Seriously though, I love that there are business people in the world who are committed to producing harmonious experiences for people. Connecting to nature is a theme that keeps coming into my awareness and is such an important aspect of life for many of us, which we may have been missing in past years, but is coming back into our lives in big ways.
I have a theory that a fast metabolism may be somehow connected to sleeping a lot. Itās as if your body processes so much during the day that it needs to rest more at night.
I am Gen X, before mobile āanythingā, so I feel lucky that I think I can survive if hypothetically all these techy gadgets disappeared overnight.
Iām wondering - how different was your leisure time back before they appeared?
I think I spent more time on older technologies e.g. TV, more time reading and other hobbies like needlecraft. However, even though I spend more time on the phone now, the trade off is TV because I donāt have a TV in my home so it is just a different kind of screen time. Iām a bit of a cinephile so now I go to the cinema on cheap days when I want to catch a film.
I think for me the main issues are privacy - I donāt want to be tracked wherever I go - and addiction - I donāt want to be addicted to being āonlineā and connected to the internet all the time. Hence, I try to leave my phone at home when I go out unless I need a live map.
Indeed, I also could survive when those gadgets disappeared overnight ( I am also a Gen X )
We learned to keep busy with ourselves when I was young, reading books, play outside with friends on the streets or in the woods. We learned by doing and learning from each other. ( fire making, building huts, playing football etcā¦ ) just being creative and engaging.
Later on, when we grew older we went out ( bars, disco etc ) without any phones and cameras in sight. ( we could do āstupidā things unnoticed )
There was a certain freedomā¦ freedom from the seen, doing āwhateverā you were doing without being occupied with screens.
Offcourse we also had games, but we played them when it was raining outside, as long it was dry or the sun was shining, we were outside engaging with each other.