Punkt. is a fairly small, vibrant and independent company, and we like to keep close connections with our clients and with people and organisations within the design world. As part of this, we frequently run 'Punkt.Challenges'. These include style challenges that form part of postgraduate style courses, and digital detox challenges where self-confessed mobile phone addicts are welcomed to review their relationship with technology.
10 years ago, smart devices were still extremely uncommon. Now, a life lived outside the structure of the mobile phone is uncommon. 10 years ago, a lot of people had smart phones, however they would generally just attract our attention if another person had decided to call us or send us a text. Now that a lot of individuals's lives are so much more automated: the new regular is to scoot around within a ceaseless assault of status updates, push alerts and a lot more.
Our Digital Detox Challenges have been running considering that 2016. The unfavorable elements of smart devices weren't widely discussed at that point, but there has considering that been a rise of interest in the topic. Individual reports are a crucial element of the Detox Challenges; by running the Challenges and releasing these reports we intend to keep the conversation of people's relationship with innovation prominent and on-going - both in regards to tech addiction and the importance of high-quality design in the real (i.e. non-virtual) world.
The big difference this time round was that the term 'smartphone dependency' had actually clearly gone into common parlance - in 2016 it still sounded a bit over the top, but in 2018 people were starting to sound truly fretted. You can check out the reports below, but here are some excerpts from a few of the lots of applications we got:
" The continuous scrolling."
" I tried it with an old traditional phone, it was like returning to an ex - with all the old pros and cons. Who does that?"
" We utilize our phones a lot - why shouldn't they be gorgeous as well as functional?"
" I'm doing my own variation now, but I needed to settle for a broke ass burner phone that's 10 years old ...".
" As a UI designer for digital items I've often questioned a few of the success criteria used in my market, specifically 'engagement' as a metric for success. Until that modifications, unfortunately it's really difficult to eliminate versus 100s of designers who are attempting to hook you in to their items. [] There is a particular paradox about this as I develop for these products however wish to get away from them. I think it's a chance for me as a designer to appreciate how valuable our attention is, and try to take that lesson back into my industry, ideally to affect a modification in method to innovation.".
" I have actually begun eliminating all my social media profiles and have right away observed the positive result it's had on me. I am a lot calmer now, and I 'd like to keep it that way, by also removing my mobile phone for excellent.".
Life is too brief to keep our heads down.
Innovation has actually considerably altered over the last century, from being a valuable tool in our lives to keeping us as connected in as much as it can and for the longest amount of time. This Challenge modifications that in its totality, pressing us into understanding exactly what is going on. I've constantly enjoyed utilizing the latest things, however since Punkt. has been around, I wished to alter that, and with the Digital Detox Challenge, that's precisely what took place. When you go from a continuously ringing smart device to a phone like this, you recognize just how much you can compromise all these applications that keep you hooked all day long: you don't require them.
In such a way, you do become kind of separated socially from your friends-- let's state if they "Snapchat" you or whatnot-- however you begin to understand that it's for the much better, and the Punkt. MP01 accomplishes just that. It teaches you simpleness and teaches you that you do not require whatever on your phone. Just the essentials.
If you seem like you are hooked on your phone, like most individuals I have fulfilled, it might be a great time to give this phone a shot. Many of my own family members experience this sensation and I seem like passing this difficulty on to others so they can get the hang of it. This Challenge has actually become so important in 2018 because-- as I stated-- Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. are here to keep us hooked in for the longest time. Do not think me? Download QualityTime for your Android and you will understand that you do not even take note of exactly what's going on around you. If you feel an itch, it might be a great time to obtain that had a look at, and a great way to set about it is with the Punkt. MP01.
The more time we invest looking at screens, the lesser daytime becomes-- and in some cases, yes, more of a barrier. Whether you're checking your messages while walking to work, enjoying your smartphone with your buddies (who are each taking pleasure in theirs), or enjoying a film, daylight is a trouble.
We started heading by doing this because we desired to. Nowadays-- to a large level-- we merely do it because we do it. And because others want us to do it.
Is this actually how you wish to spend your time on Earth?
* * *.
In 2016, Google employee Tristan Harris left his task to found a brand-new non-profit organisation called Time Well Spent, which sought to broaden the argument on what technology is doing to us and led to the production of the Center for Humane Technology. Ever since, the topic has taken off into the mainstream and it has ended up being clear that it is not doing advantages to our basic sense of well-being.
The web page of the Center's website features a striking montage image. A generic graphic of a smart device is combined with a photograph of a female. But she is not provided as being on the screen. She is in fact looking out from the phone, leaning with her arms folded on the bottom edge of the screen as though it were a windowsill. She appears delighted, enjoying the view. And she is bathed in sunshine.
Possibly it makes good sense to use these brighter evenings for something other than taking a look at pixels? When bedtime methods, matching sundown with a digital sunset: everything turned off, leaving simply a land-line with a number understood only to household and close friends, and a dedicated alarm clock.
Signing up with those who have actually ditched their smart devices completely, combining a standard phone with a laptop or tablet (much much better for typing on). Nowadays these concepts may sound practically extreme, but as far as biology is worried, they're exactly what your brain wants. The medical side-effects of tech over-use.
Since of the apparent reduction in traffic accidents, Daylight Saving Time is stated to increase life span of a nation's residents. Ditto prohibiting phone use while driving, obviously (with a much clearer causal link). Phones threaten in other ways, too: scrollers walking into traffic, selfie trophy-hunters taking one threat a lot of, and so on. However over-use of tech diminishes our lives in another way also-- incrementally and inevitably. It provides us a narrower presence in which we are less focussed, less rested and thus less awake. Over-use eats our lives, and it's becoming the standard.
Time for a rethink?
Do you find that wherever you go, you constantly end up in the very same location: in front of your smart device? Using it, or letting it use you, to stay 'linked'? Linked with what individuals depend on back house. Connected with the most current news reports. Linked with work. Gotten in touch with video games, YouTube videos, Wikipedia. Gotten in touch with pictures from the last vacation you took, and the one prior to that. What kind of 'connection' is that, truly? This scenario is something that's crept up on us, and possibly it's time to start making some choices ...
A vacation is an opportunity to turn off, to experience new things. But if we don't also turn off our devices, if we continue to outsource our consciousness to image sensors and memory cards, if we're still connected to what we were doing prior to we left and exactly what we'll be doing when we get back, it's as if we're paying a sort of holiday tax. Part of the experience is subtracted-- and not to help the regional economy, but to help line the pockets of investors of social networks business.
Envision a timeless travelogue like Jack Kerouac's On the Road, minus this tax. There wouldn't be much. As well as if we're looking for something a bit less extreme for our fortnight away, the principle still uses. Whether it's a case of pings on the beach, or livestreaming from the Louvre, something's acquired but something's lost. And on the topic of getting lost, yes, without a mobile phone it might take place. And possibly you'll end up somewhere that ends up being the emphasize of your trip. Possibly you'll discover some interesting restaurant that isn't on tripadvisor.com. You may end up talking to some residents. Absolutely nothing ventured, absolutely nothing acquired. This connect the growing sluggish travelmovement, and the recovering of overland travel as a mainstream and reasonable alternative to flying, demonstrated by the underground success of The Man in Seat Sixty-One. It's everything about being there.
If we do decide to have a holiday that doesn't focus on processing huge data, there are a couple of options. We can go to the other severe, and leave home without any kind of phone or tablet. (That never used to be a severe, but we live in severe times.) And we have choices like changing our device's settings to 'minimum', leaving it in the hotel safe throughout the day, etc
. Or we can take a various phone. One that only does calls and texts. Then immerse ourselves in a various culture, have some experiences, or merely delight in a little peace and quiet.
The physical act of switching phones goes deep. It's a bit like flying the nest. And it's beginning to acquire in appeal: whether a low-cost, old-tech design or something more elegant and up-to-date, deciding to sometimes utilize a simple phone is something that everyone can relate to nowadays. They might refrain from doing it themselves, but they certainly understand why some people do.
There are practical benefits, too. Only needing to charge your phone occasionally is popular with everyone but if you're going someplace without mains electricity, your greedy smartphone will be no use at all. Likewise, with a simple phone you do not need to keep inspecting that your digital factotum hasn't cunningly found some way of adding monster-sized data roaming charges-- it can still happen. It's the 'actually being there' that truly counts. Sure, travelling without a mobile phone will suggest a few mix-ups, a decreased capability to strategy, to understand ahead of time exactly what's going to occur. But travelling sans algorithms is where the action is. And the screens on easy phones are frequently much tougher than the large locations of glass discovered on their more find more info complicated cousins. Changing a broken smart device screen is an inconvenience at the very best of times; multiply that by 10 if you're abroad.
It's the 'really being there' that really counts. Sure, travelling without a mobile phone will indicate a couple of mix-ups, a lowered ability to strategy, to know beforehand exactly what's going to happen. However travelling sans algorithms is where the action is.
SMS 03 - Punkt. MP02 from Punkt. on Vimeo.