There’s an interesting article on the HBR website today from Peter Bregman, the article is a bit sensational in it’s title, “Why I returned my iPad”. Bregman says that he missed being bored and spending time with his 8 year old daughter and so decided to return his iPad. As a result the comments have been quite polarising and people are either commending the author or accusing him of trolling / trying to link bait for traffic with a sensational story. Personally, I think there’s a bigger issue and it’s a bit sad that the author has wasted an opportunity by trying to link bait for traffic.
The issue is having control over technology. I have the TV on waaaaay too much. I accept that, it’s a hard habit to break, the Bee absolutely hates it and sometimes we get roped into watching a silly TV show rather than having a conversation. At the same time we both have iPod’s, blackberries and laptops – our house has two of everything and 4 laptops right now – so we spend a lot of time on devices. And this is likely to grow rather than stop.
We need to take back control. Just because we have Blackberry messenger, or skype, or email, or facebook, or twitter, or whatever doesn’t mean we need to be on it all the time. I’m a bit torn because I love watching TV with facebook or twitter on in the background, and I don’t think I want to give up the occasional sporting event or series that I’m really interested in. But it’s about balance; it’s about spending time wisely rather than wasting time.
Returning a piece of kit, or killing an account on a social network is not the answer, the answer is being conscious of how much time we’re spending with technology and what the opportunity costs are of that time.
