Over dinner with Jackson and Jell,
Jackson: My uncle passed away recently yet my cousin (uncle's son) was constantly glued to his mobile screens. Normally during our conversations, he wouldn't make eye contact, his eyes are always fixated on his phone. Even during the funeral, he chose to use his phone than to burn the joss papers for his father who just passed away. It's a tradition for sons to burn joss paper as a mark of respect and to show his filial piety. Even after nudging from the family, he refused to do it, he said burning joss paper was boring and he would rather use his phone.
Jackson: I wouldn't let my kids use mobile devices until they reach a certain age. It is super easy and fast for them to learn how to use one. Look at us, we adapted so easily to the 1st smartphone but after that, there is no looking back. My nephew is 5 years old and he's not allowed to use mobile devices. I think it is a good strategy as he grew up to be very inquisitive and sensible in many aspects. He would observe the things his parents do and he figured out how to use the washing machine and would wash clothes on his own. He loves books and there was once where I wanted to buy a book for him and was walking to the counter but he stopped me and said 'Let's check the price first, if its not expensive we can consider.' He went to the counter and checked the price himself. It wasn't expensive so he gave his approval and commented ' It's going to be a fun night.'
Over dinner with Zen and Rini,
Zen: It doesn't really concern me even if more people are getting affected by Digital Dementia and even if I am affected, I don't really care and wouldn't change my digital habits.
Rini: I do not believe technology can cause negative effects on our brains.
Over dinner with Jasmine, Jes and Cheryl:
Jasmine: It's strange that the colleague sitting beside me would rather text me asking a simple question than asking me face-to-face
Cheryl: Maybe she didn't want to disturb you
Jasmine: It could be that but many of them do not speak to each other even though its an open-concept office.
Me: That's interesting, previously when I was at Qanvast, it was also an open concept office and everyone would just talk and ask questions directly, its a lot easier to get things done and there were more sharing and laughter too.
Jes: There's this article about happiness and how it is the only metric of success that really matters but we often ignore it. Maybe this could be relevant to your research as the society places high-reward competition as priority.
Me: This article is very relevant as I am also looking at the pursuit of happiness and meritocracy.
Over dinner with dad:
Dad: Recently, a woman got hit by a taxi as she was crossing the road using her mobile phone. It was covered on Straits Times.
Me: I come across this often when I'm driving, there are pedestrians who never look out for traffic when they are trying to cross the roads, they are always glued to their screens. It's scary because they do it at roads with no traffic signals as well.
Over dinner with Dion:
Dion: You can't cut them out completely if you're running a data-fasting experiment, I think it's fine to go out and engage with activities that may utilise technology and screens such as VR or exhibitions like Future World.
Over dinner with Jason:
Jason: Maybe its about conversations becoming too boring so tables have to be re-designed with games for interaction?
Me: It's like this restaurant, Platypus where we had dinner with our friends at 3 years ago and there were table games and we had fun questions to ask each other while waiting for food to be served.
Conversations with some of my year 2 students and asking them which applications do they rely most on,
Victoria: GPS, Alarm clock and Youtube
Anabel: GPS, Google, Lightroom
Sherwyn: GPS, IG, Mobile legends
Loh yi: WeChat, GPS, Alarm clock
Cindy: Wechat, Spotify, GPS
Maureen, Camera, IG, GPS
Charis: Camera, Google, Whatsapp
Jeway: Whatsapp, spotify and youtube
Yvonne: Google, GPS, iTunes
Evangelyn: Google, IG, Telegram
1. GPS
2. Google
3. WeChat / Whatsapp
4. Alarm Clock
5. IG
6. Youtube
7. Camera
Andrew shared this article by Straits Times with me where 2 ST journalists took a 48 hour tech detox challenge and I intend to get in touch with them.
Through this experiment, I discovered so much and learned to enjoy things I was doing at the moment. As I spent less time on my phone applications, I became more present and mindful of the surroundings than before, I began enjoying the food I ate and started noticing the smallest things - crisp leaves on the ground and watching unfolding of clouds. I didn't respond to Whatsapp messages instantly as well. During a staycation at Sentosa, I wasn't too caught up with taking photos and it was a really nice feeling. However even after this experiment and feeling really liberated, I won't abstain from applications completely. I am not a luddite, I am pro-technology, but I believe in maintaining a healthy digital/life balance with equal levelness of on and off-screen possibilities.
Something funny to end off this post, I went wakeboarding with my girlfriends two weeks ago and as we took the speed boat, the sky looked really beautiful and I decided to capture the scenery. When I turned on my camera, I saw my friends with their phones pointing at me in my screen. The three of us took out our mobile phones at the same time to do the same thing.
After that, all of us put down our phones, resumed to having conversations, taking in the scenery and started to wakeboard. I think its all about having the right balance.
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