WiFi free - why I may never get a smart phone
Sunday, August 10, 2014 at 01:57AM ‘Free WiFi’ read the cheery signs outside cafes the world around. Or maybe not so much these days of universal smart phone ownership, when most everyone carries their WiFi access around in their pocket.
But what if you’d rather be WiFi free?
I’m no despiser of technology. Used judiciously, the Internet can be a magic carpet ride of wonder. I just don’t want to carry it around with me, I really don’t; which is why I may never get a smart phone.
I’m too aware of my own lack of self-control. It’s bad enough having to ignore the siren call of whatever boundless fascination the Internet offers when I am working on my computer.
I know how my mind works. ‘I’ll just check my work emails. I’ll just check my gmail account. I’ll just have a quick look at my blog and see if anyone has commented on it since I last looked two hours ago. I’ll just see if there’s anything funny on facebook. I’ll just look up that author I have discovered and loved and see what she looks like. I’ll just find out what those obscure song lyrics are really saying. I’ll just, I’ll just, I’ll just, I’ll just waste this whole fricking day when I should be writing.
A teacher of mine who was a prolific writer was asked how she produced so much. ‘I have a shed at the end of the garden with no internet connection,’ she said. I’ve long appreciated that quote about creativity being 10% inspiration and 90% ignoring the Internet.
The Internet is indeed a treasure trove that I am only just beginning to plunder; it’s only recently that I’ve learned to look up facts on google, and not traipse to a library for a reference book. But the truth is that there is endless dross on the Internet as well. There is a bottomless pit of facebook entries telling you that this you tube clip is the cutest or funniest or most shocking thing you will ever see. In my experience, they never live up to their promise.
And although there is wonderful stuff on the Internet, I don’t care – I don’t need to know any more about anything, not in that way. I have no need for any more facts in my head, what I do need are the time and space and leisure and empty head in which to reflect deeply upon the things I already know.
Living in a city in the 21st century, I see, read and watch so much every day, and meet so many people, that I get entire conversations and movies and news clips completely muddled. My brain is essentially the same as that of a middle-aged woman 200 years ago who might have lived in a village, known about 150 people, read the odd book and seen the occasional newspaper. I have no wish to be that woman, but my brain is no bigger than hers, and I do not need any more stuff in there! There is quite enough clamorous blethering nonsense in my head without any external stimulation.
These days, on my writing day, I don’t turn on the modem until I have written for a couple of hours. Better still, when I can manage it, is two or three days alone at our shack at Anglesea where there is no WiFi. It never ceases to amaze me how many hours there are in the day when I am not ‘just checking’ anything; the writing flows and flows. I have absolutely no doubt that I am not only more productive, but also more creative, contented and calm when I don’t spend time on the Internet.
If I had a smart phone, however, I could ‘just check’ anytime, anywhere, and I fear I would. On the tram, walking, sitting by the fire of an evening when I would be better off focusing on whoever I happen to be with. There would be less and less time spent idly day dreaming – staring out the train window, watching the birds on the golf course at Royal Park, allowing myself the empty, sometimes boring head space that is where good writing comes from.
So, for me, free WiFi can stay in the Internet cafes where it belongs. It has no place in my pocket.
Reader Comments (3)
Good advice, Clare. Ten years ago when I worked at the VU media branch I would often have at least one morning a week when I would not turn on the computer (let alone email, etc) until about 10am, so that I could sift through notes from interviews and drafts and things. Couldn't do that nowadays in such a workplace (apart from the fact that I don't have that sort of job anymore). The distractions and procrastinations of the internet are different to the old-fashioned distractions and procrastinations of doing the dishes, checking the letter box, vacuuming, putting away the dishes, checking the letterbox again, putting on the kettle, putting on a load of washing, cooking, checking the letterbox again, hanging out the washing - in that the old-fashioned methods give you time to, if even accidentally, to ponder ideas and sentences and such. The internet, in this regards, is like a fizzy drink. The old-fashioned methods are more like a cup of tea.
I share your experience of the seductive power of the Internet but there is a less drastic solution than not having a smart phone: you could have a smart phone on a contract with a very low data download. The best of both worlds – internet when you really need it (eg where is the closest pizza shop when you’ve just decided to get take-away after a long day out) but no temptation otherwise because of the potential cost.
Wholly in sympathy Clare. The insidious nature of Facebook et.al is that I find I want to read it not for what I expect to get but for what I might miss.