[maverick42]

An essential topic in today's connected world. Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

Here is what has helped me.
- I couldn't stay away from media consumption. Hence tried replacing binge-watching with binge-hearing. Replaced visual media with podcasts in any form.
- Forced myself to not touch my mobile in the first hour after waking up. Including checking official emails. It can wait, if nothing has burned down while I was sleeping.
- IMPORTANT: muted all notifications except Office email, banking, SMS.
- In order to utilize the free time recovered, started taking brisk walks. Having a TWS earpods plugged and podcasts running on favorite topics (finance, leadership, automotives) made this enjoyable.

I'll be the first one to accept it's hard to be consistent. I have slipped into the old ways often, and if you are like me, you will too. But know that you've seen the worst and the best and eventually you'll find your way to being the best. Just force yourself to push the urge to pick your mobile by another 5 mins. It helps.

[am1m]

Hmmm, if anything, the social media site I spend most time on is...TBhp!

I know it's fashionable to denounce 'the evils of social media, especially among the younger generation'...through posts on an online forum!

True there is a wealth of automobile information on this forum, but there is also more than enough personally identifiable information, travel plans, member pics and real names, especially in the 'Introduction' and 'Meetup' sections, expressions of angst, personal milestones, etc etc. So, really, I don't see much of a difference.

[roy_libran]

For me -
No Whatsapp, No FB, No Insta - 3 yrs and counting.
Don't watch any TV programmes. Stopped watching Netflix last year.

I do have an X account that I use to keep tab on what's going on, but actively disrupt filter bubbles and attempt to thwart algos as much as I can. I do the same with YouTube.

Got myself a Watch 6 LTE, and often leave the phone back at home now. The watch can take care of calls, text messages, NFC payments and BT earbuds/helmet pairing.

Moreover, I force myself to read more books and avoid using Navigation as much as I can (try to remember routes or memorize them beforehand).

[GTO]

Counter viewpoints, Airguitar .

Originally Posted by airguitar

I was shocked to see such a request as it is something that we all do just once a year. What was more shocking is that there were people replying with names of companies/contacts that did this for a fee ( 10 rupees for a book ). Pickup/drops were supported. Covers could be ours' or theirs. Blah Blah. So clearly there is a 'demand' that drives this business.

We outsource this work (and other stuff) too.

Reason = Our family philosophy is work hard, play hard. Almost all our waking hours are spent on making money, family time, enjoying life, unique experiences, working out, meditation etc. I'd rather spend 2 hours on a beach in Bombay than small tasks. Or go drive the AMG parked down my house right now (media test-drive car).

I prefer not to spend my time on small tasks. I don't have the time nor bandwidth for them. I have a personal assistant who takes care of all that for me. We also have a full-time cook and a full-time maid in the house. As do all my siblings in India.

There is no right or wrong here. You choose to live your life in a certain way, I choose to live mine in a certain way. It's a free country.

Those that do, employ a cook. Very few households where all meals are cooked at home I suppose.

We employ a cook, and Zomato / Swiggy food delivery is down to a bare minimum (once in 10 - 14 days). Love the freshness & taste of home food. My cook is with me since 6 years and he's extremely, extremely talented. A lot of Mods have been to my place and will attest to that.

But yes, we have an active social life, so eating out (whether at a relative's house party or restaurant) is 2 meals in a week (sometimes 3 meals when there are more social events).

Most households have a live-in domestic help. Most households get professional services for "deep cleaning". Drivers for chaffeuring us to work. Car cleaners for cleaning cars. Administrators/assistants at work. Man Fridays for troubleshooting. Agents for getting stuff done. Tuitions for children. Coaches for kids' sporting skills.

Yes to most of these points.

Online courses for anything and everything. Companies that take care of your 'car servicing' and doing things like pickup/drop/'ensuring correct service bills'. Resume services for writing resumes. AI based tools shortly for helping you write a letter.

No to all of these. Not a believer of online courses (unless unavailable in-person around me).

my only question is what are most of us doing with the time thus saved by offloading mundane things of life ( are all of them mundane, really anyway?). Me time ? With Social Media?

Working hard, playing harder . I am very aggressive about my work schedule and I am also very determined to have a lot of fun in life.

I'm seriously worried that I might lose the skill of counting money fast after UPI'ing stuff for years now

99% of my payments are digital. Why should I be adept at counting bundles of cash? I was a long time ago in the Plywood business where a lot of payments came in cash. But not anymore (although I can still manage it because of older days). You are worried about an outdated skill.

Like how some of us cannot reverse a vehicle now without a reverse sensor or reverse cam.

I can reverse without a sensor or camera (two of my cars have neither). But when the government itself has mandated rear parking sensors in all new cars, it is hardly a necessary life skill anymore.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by airguitar

This is not a sarcastic post. I genuinely want to know, ideally if you have references to any data-backed articles around this topic. I have a suspicion if such 'saved time' is used for any good purpose other than scrolling through one's social media feeds (for the average person). Lastly, I have always maintained that one's laziness and one's emotions are the two primary 'market's for many businesses - many of the above examples seem to be in the same zone.

While I am agreement with point and question about usage of the 'saved time' and whether it is just potentially wasted on social media, I do have a different opinion on your points that lead to it.

Over the course of human evolution, we have always been behind doing things differently, faster, better, cheaper, simpler to name a few. It is a cliched and oft repeated statement that if the human race did not do these- we would be no different from any other living species all of which we lord over today.

Hence I don't think we can do a selective outrage against the latest modern changes that we personally cannot relate to. From the examples you mentioned, from a personal perspective-We cook all meals at home maybe 80% of the time-rest is ordered/eat out, no cook, No live in maid- but do have a maid who comes in, we online order all groceries but don't use Blinkit or Instamart. Prefer to step out for 1-2 items as needed, Book covering was done at home only(Did not know that service exists). So from this small list, there are a few that me as an individual have taken a decision to leverage the benefit and a few that I have not done yet.

If you take a step back, anything that has made our life easier has resulted in a loss/reduction of a skill and also has some negative impact. We saved ourselves a lot of time by inventing trains, planes, cars, buses, washing machines, electricity, internet, email to name a few. We also invented a lot of things to waste(or spend) time on depending how you look at it. So we invented stuff like radio, movies, television and now social media which enabled us to spend the free time we earned from our inventions.

So every such item of progress would have freed up time. What do we do with it? That is an individual preference - some would use the time to create the next invention which all will enjoy, others may use it to revive a new hobby or spend time with family or friends or spend more time on work to make more money or maybe just waste the time on social media. The options are endless.

Also a skill that is made obsolete by some evolution is likely to end up as an obsolete skill. It may be a fantastic skill, but will have no use in the current world unless something happens that rolls back a particular step. Like for example Covid happened and suddenly people had to cook, clean and do a bunch of things themselves. That also ended up being a temporary phase.

In summary, in my view we cannot be hypocritical in saying somethings are resulting in skill loss and free time which is being wasted when we ourselves have done the same thing with things that have made our life easier in the past. It is up to us to decide what all conveniences we want to use and which ones we don't. If we use something and get more time on hands, it is up to the individual to decide how to use that time. Not denying that a lot of free time is just being wasted on social media and can be put to better use. That is definitely happening, but it is out of choice.

Edit: This post is probably tangential to the core topic which is digital addition. I definitely agree that digital addition is an issue getting more and more widespread and is something that needs to be taken seriously. It is not just about spending additional free time on social media. Again, like all other addictions, first the individual has to realize he/she is addicted and then should voluntarily takes those steps to get out of it.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by GTO

Counter viewpoints, Airguitar .
Working hard, playing harder . I am very aggressive about my work schedule and I am also very determined to have a lot of fun in life.

I was hoping for such a reply from someone. After all, getting rid of the mundane is to focus on the more important things of life.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Beautifully put across Sir. Your thoughts completely resonate what I have been thinking over the years. I thought I was the only one. Glad to know there are people like you whom I have the company of

In addition to what you have said, people who are barely financially stable are opting for these mentioned third party convenience services.

Yes digital media puts a lot of peer pressure. Just recently I was watching a TV program where families were talking about the immense social peer pressure ( vacation, celebrations etc ) that social media is bringing on them

Originally Posted by am1m

Hmmm, if anything, the social media site I spend most time on is...TBhp!

I know it's fashionable to denounce 'the evils of social media, especially among the younger generation'...through posts on an online forum!

I'm from an older generation, and I'm completely affected by the digital addiction too, many that I know from my generation are too ( or even the generation before). So I'm not trying to point out any generational aspects here. Part of the goals of the question is to see how the world is not getting drowned in it, able to use it for what it needs to be and disconnect when not absolutely needed.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

While I am agreement with point and question about usage of the 'saved time' and whether it is just potentially wasted on social media, I do have a different opinion on your points that lead to it.
Hence I don't think we can do a selective outrage against the latest modern changes that we personally cannot relate to. From the examples you mentioned, from a personal perspective-

Totally accept your perspective. But no selective outrage at all. Not even a complaint. My question is a genuinely curious one to understand if one has been able to give more attention to the things that matter because we saved on all of this. GTO's response is very encouraging, that's the exact kind of things I wanted to hear to infuse more optimism. Also, while I'm concerned about the loss of skills, I do get your point that it may not be the priority for everyone else.

[mizu]

Originally Posted by airguitar

As the academic year at schools is about to start in a week, we had someone messaging in one of our social media groups asking if there was company that would do the 'brown paper coverings' for the new books of their children.

I was shocked to see such a request as it is something that we all do just once a year. What was more shocking is that there were people replying with names of companies/contacts that did this for a fee ( 10 rupees for a book ).

I think there needs to be a balance between outsourcing things and DIY (but the needle definitely tipping more towards outsourcing if you have the $$$)

Some of the most fondest memories I have of my family is when we all used to sit in the room and do brown paper coverings for all my and my siblings books! I remember those days vividly and cherish it dearly!

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

If you take a step back, anything that has made our life easier has resulted in a loss/reduction of a skill and also has some negative impact.
...
So every such item of progress would have freed up time. What do we do with it? That is an individual preference -...

Thank you for saying this! I've never understood romanticizing things like household chores. Yes, they have to be done, but how many people enjoy doing them? I'll wager that most men who lament about 'home cooked food' have someone else at home cooking for them! Personally, neither my wife nor I have ever enjoyed cooking. And considering that she works as hard (or probably harder) and makes at least as much money as I do (probably more by now) it should be equally my responsibility to cook as well. But I can't think of a more pointless way to spend whatever precious free time I get outside of work than shopping for vegetables, then hours in the kitchen, and then washing up after!

I know some friends of mine who love to cook. After a long day at work dealing with the boss, longer hours at home dealing with two small kids, there's nothing that a friend of mine loves more than cooking a meal. It relaxes him and I don't judge him for that, I try and get invited to his place and appreciate his skill! To each their own. Why is that so hard to accept?

[Rohitthebest]

I guess I am the only one in our family of three who DOES NOT need a digital detox.
We are a family of three and me and my wife both work full time. Wife's working hours are more hectic as she is a personal trainer in a renowned gym, works two shifts between 7-11 AM and 3-9 PM. My hours are flexible anywhere between 11 AM to 5 PM here and there.
Kiddo is 17 years old and she has no fix schedule as they all are in today's time and age.

Now how it works for me is that my cell phone is completely silent all the time, no notifications from anywhere except text messages and calls. I always keep it in standing position with the help of a Chinese stand I bought for 200/- from Amazon.
I only check my phone between chapters of the current book that I am reading. If a call comes, book takes a backseat and I go back to it as soon as I finish the call.
I check my official emails again between chapters or page breaks if anything urgent crops up, my associates call me and apprise me of the same.
I watch TV only after 7 PM that too a few episodes before wifey hits back home and we ALWAYS dine together however late it may be for her to come back.
We have a full time cook and a temporary house help for cleaning etc so our things are in order and on timely basis.
I love reading and on an average I read not less than 52 books a year. The best year I read 101 books way back in 2018-19 I guess.
I am a big time movie buff and usually watch somewhere around 35-40 movies in theatre during a good year. Half of them will be with my better half for sure.
So far I am able to keep my screen time pretty low.
Most of my screen time would be my Outlook, company ATS and TBHP.
And I plan to keep it the same way for years to come.

[chiekennugget]

If you have an iPhone (running iOS 17 or later) and want to reduce your screen time, you can enable Assistive Access. This limits your phone to only apps you choose and others that are considered essential (calls, messages). Keep in mind the UI is very different from the usual iOS interface.

In order to turn it on:
Settings->Accessibility->scroll to the bottom->Assistive Access->Start Assistive Access (It will open a prompt to choose that apps you want, you can not choose anything if you would like to)

In order to exit Assistive Access, triple click the power button.

Dark mode is available but the Apple website had only examples with light mode (not possible to take screenshots to my knowledge)

[100Kmphormore]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

In addition to what you have said, people who are barely financially stable are opting for these mentioned third party convenience services. Many people I know of raise eyebrows when I say we do most household chores ourselves. They perceive this as our inability to pay for the services. I prefer doing stuff hands on because it allows to connect with myself at a deeper level. I can know what I am capable of doing, where my limitations are and where I can improve. Added benefit is that I am away from my phone/digital content.

Oh man, what a paragraph! As someone who hasnt used these "convenience" services much when I was earning, except once to clean the family sofa to see how UrbanClaps services was, I really echo with this sentiment. As Madhavan stated in an interview, a middle class life should be the beginning atleast - and enjoy the fruits of your labor as you grow later on. My parents have never heard of these services except the haircut at UrbanClap during Covid that is when the lockdown started.

I too am of the "dont sweat the small things" - instance, if I was working away from home, I would rather have a cook who can buy and cook the required 3 meals a day as its a time and mind consuming activity especially on office weekdays, with home made healthy food making health a top priority. Automate all possible payments if necessary through a credit card, but keep an eye on what I am spending. If I get a lot busier in my career where that instant is generating me income, perhaps an additional maid to clean the house and bathrooms/toilets, as I do that myself.

Currently being on a tight savings account doing my Masters while having no choice of asking parents for my expenses (petrol for college travel for instance, books etc) - I havent eaten out at a posh restaurant with my classmates and refused to go to a Goa trip. Eat at small but reliable shops for breakfast if I have to. My classmates staying in hostel order in Zomato though they have a relatively good mess. All depends on money power and foresight for the future.

[sukarsan]

I too have had a long addiction to laptop and then phone. I had a dumb phone till 2019 to control my addiction, but even that became unusable. Every strategy has fallen flat as they are not sustainable. Finally, I started using this app called Digital Detox.

All the doom scrolling apps have limited access. ( 20 mins over 4 hours ). I have access to all the productivity apps all the time. Eventually I started to pass time over google maps ( desperation) and it soon started getting boring.

It takes time to get used to this app. I would suggest that you can start by locking the phone for 10 - 15 mins and get used to the concept. But once implemented I can promise you that you will get your life back.

This app effectively changes your phone from a timewasting device to a productivity/communication tool(which was what it was meant to be).

PS: You need to pay 75 Rs to unlock your phone in case of emergency. With sufficient customization , you can ensure that this situation of paying up to unlock will never occur.

[Ghosty]

Originally Posted by jimmyjagga

Hi,
I am trying to remove my distraction from smart phone. A noob question here is there a basic feature phone with WhatsApp only. I require WhatsApp since both office and family connects text on WhatsApp rather than sms.
I tried searching for such device but could not yield any results.

Regards

I use a Jiophone as my backup phone, and it has WhatsApp and other stuff (you cannot make calls throught WhatsApp on it though), newer Nokia phones also have whatsapp

[Mystic]

My 2 cents. My generation may be the last unique generation ( I am 60 years old now ) who grew up seeing valves, transistors, chips, black and white TV, colour TV, HD TV and many house hold appliances from washing machines etc which are taken for granted in these days. I still remember tinkering with aerials to watch foreign channels pre Doordarshan days in India. I grew up my childhood in government bungalows with many government servants given officially by Government for house chores. We always treated them with respect. I grew up as an adult and working for multinational companies in IT where labor is very costly abroad. Hence I started doing all house hold chores. I have a very advanced tool kit to handle any type of simple carpentry, plumbing and electrical works in house. This transition happened smoothly as necessity is mother of invention.

In my father’s generation, they grew up in a country influenced by British colonialism and this has been portrayed in a very realistic manner in a movie “passage to India”. They lived all their life with servants helping them always.

Coming to my Son’s generation now, every thing is measured in billing rate per hour. If one’s billing rate is very high per hour, it doesn't make sense to spend time in doing laundry , cooking and other house hold chores. In a country of a billion people in India, the labour rates are very low for doing house chores and all lower middle class families have by default servant maids in all households. In Covid days, all realised on how to live without servants for the first time in their life.

It is all about attitude and working smart and not hard is the key irrespective of generation. Being very grounded and being mentally strong philosophically is the key. One should survive if all servants disappear overnight suddenly. It just so happened that our generation saw the maximum creature comforts evolving which are taken for granted now.

[Totoro11]

Interesting Thread

I have resorted to using the Digital Well-Being features on Android and blocked most apps (except Office, productivity, finance & cabs) from 9-5 on weekdays. While this can be turned off for 5/15/30mins, it will fill you with guilt every time you lose control. You can use an individual app for 5mins as exception.

Cannot disable Whatsapp so turned off notifications from it. Now i access it only when i want to, rather than it grabbing my attention at random times.

There's also the Bedtime mode that converts the screen to black&white after 10pm.

No Netflix or AppleTV subscription (haven't been able to properly watch what's available at amazon prime & airtel xtreme that includes sony, lionsgate etc). Cable TV restricted to 1 hour per week in total.

Still looking for a solution to minimize the 10 browser tabs kept open for reading. Each browser now comes with suggested sites/pages which can be a good sources of content discovery but also a big distraction.

On the convenience services front, not a big fan of quick-commerce and food delivery(maybe once a month). Regular online shopping too has come down as i realized there's a huge pile of clothing & electronic junk getting accumulated at home. Now i keep items in my cart for atleast 24hrs before placing an order. Helps reduce impulse purchases.