Technology today is an immersive experience, and as professionals in the space we tend to be above average in terms of our adoption and interconnectivity. Today we have an app for nearly every idea imaginable, providing significantly more value-add to our daily lives than the generations that preceded us. Technology however can be a double-edged sword, and the potential value-add and ease of access to so many options can lead to behaviors detrimental to our well-being. Doom-scrolling is a solid example of this, where apps have created such a focus on retaining attention that we spend an unhealthy amount of time glued to our screens.
In the early 2010s, I had come to this realization as I learned from the successes (and many, many failures) of my 20s, and actively began to seek out low/no technology counter-balances to foster healthier long-term personal growth.
For myself, these counter balances came in a variety of forms over the years, some that come to mind:
- Note taking using Moleskine notebooks
- Indoor gardening
- Marathon training
Have you found yourself needing to counter-balance our technology-focused lives with low/no tech? Share your own experience and ways you've created a balanced lifestyle in the comments below ⬇️
Top comments (7)
great topic!
as mentioned by others I often combine low and high tech on same activity.
I "need" to take notes and do sketches on paper to really think or summarise my ideas, learnings and so on, but then I document them in readmes, diagrams or gdoc for reference and searchability. similarly I keep a digital commonplace book , but I also like to have a physical one with cards in a box.
the only thing I don't copy in digital is my gratitude journal, a kind of diary I keep on my bedside table and it's the last thing I do before sleeping (and it must be off-screen)
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also, books have to be physical. I need to go through the pages, make marks, write notes and fold corners.
besides all this, I like to spend lots of time away from tech simply doing lots of sport (climbing, mostly)
Oo this is an interesting discussion idea!
First off, I'll say this... All the note apps in the world will never replace good old pen and paper for me. I love Notion, but there's nothing quite like physically scratching a line through a todo in my notepad. It's very satisfying!
As a musician, I often feel the pull of low-tech vs. high-tech... I get very different feels from strumming on acoustic guitar to plugging in & plucking away with an electric. Same goes for synths too... although both are electrified tech, the old voltage controlled synthesizers with knobs and faders feel and function miles apart from the digital synths of today that make heavy use of screens and menu-diving.
Even if you're not a musician, as a listener you can often hear the difference between low-tech, human-centric music and hi-tech, machine-made music (though machine-made music is getting more and more capable of sounding human). I watch a lot of musical breakdowns on Youtube and the following video on hip hop producer J Dilla's Timefeel gets really into the idea of rhythm in human music vs. traditional machine-made music and explains how so much of modern music is made locked to a grid because of the tech we use.
So do i,
I love taking notes in a white paper and making mental maps to undestand the stuffs that i'm studying.
And about social media, i try to spend my time out of there. They make me feels tired.
I combine high tech and low tech in the same activities because they have both pros and cons but they are different.
For example often I have been writing my TODO list in a kind of website and not actually used it afterward.
Writing on paper and putting it on the wall is much more efficient and in my face so it often works better for me.
On the other hand I like to keep track on the progress I have made during the last weeks so I write down my journal in Obsidian, high tech.
But sometimes writing is difficult on a computer, because there are so much distractions.
Paper is very much distraction free, so it's a great way to get started and brainstorm, which for me is a very important step.
Now once i have the structure of my article on paper, I will probably not do that on paper, because when I did that it usally stayed in the notebook for months.
Or maybe I will actually write on paper.
But then after that I will take a picture and sync it with all my devices.
So when I join back my computer, I know exactly where to start.
I think you got the point :)
I love this question!
I am a huge proponent of living low-tech, though I am in no means an expert! I have been taking notes in journals since I was so little and it is a huge part of my life, but recently I got gifted a typewriter for my birthday and it is making me very happy.
I also know that waste-wise it makes a lot more sense to own a Kindle or any sort of e-book software, but I love going to the library and reading a real book instead!
I try to build as much time into my graphic design progress as I can physically sketching, because I find that once I switch to the computer I am more able to create something quickly! I find that having reference books in the house on different brand systems/typography has really helped me here as well.
I have designed 2 houses in a 3D software and with the help of DIY JavaScripts for calculations, and then built them in real life with a couple of guys. Happy that everything is done now, so I can go back to my screen full time! Now after gaining all that construction muscle mass, I have to do sports after work, to keep it ;-)
I may be a little too high tech...
I do just about everything on my computer except designs I do on paper then keep a copy and an archive digitally.