Hey, you. Yeah, you—the one reading this. The one that says ignorant things like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” “I’m busier than you,” or “I only require 3-4 hours of sleep.”

This research by Harvard obviously doesn’t apply to you, because you’re the exception in life. You’re superhuman.

For the rest of us, the study is a convincing reminder of mortality. Not only convincing, but alarming.

(more…)

Here they are:

They didn’t always look that way. Like most smartphone users, I used to set all my alerts to interrupt my life the second anything came in. Voice calls. Emails. Texts. Software alerts. Website comments. RSS updates. (Keep in mind this was before social media, so things have gotten worse.)

These distractions understandably drove my wife crazy because I was, in essence, having an affair with my phone. White lies were told when asked, “Blake, what were you doing?” Often times I’d leave the room – or wherever it was we were vacationing – for “a quickie” to avoid sideways glances that accurately accused me of being elsewhere in thought, priority, and identity.

I did this for a couple of years until it drove me crazy. I had formed a love/hate disorder with my phone. I liked it for the conveniences it did then (and now), but I knew I was unable to have a personal life with my leash-phone around. So I began purposefully leaving it behind on nights and weekends. (more…)

This story.

(Note: When reading the below spoiler, it works best if received as Bane would deliver it. Got it? Good. Here’s how it’ll go down.)

White-collar workers will burnout, inspiration will wither. Compulsive disorders will rise, productivity, focus, and attention spans will fall.

Loved ones, friends, and family will be ignored. Mental and physical health will be depleted, and cast out as a deafening level of self-importance surrounds us.

Passions will die. Joy will with it.

But it doesn’t have to end that way. It’s why I’m writing a book on the subject. With guts, discipline, and offline identity, “we will endure.” We’ll eventually put these online devices in their rightful place and be better for it.

But act II of the story will be crucial in getting to the end. I’ll tell you that part later this year.

I don’t know the scientific name, but I’m one of the lucky creatures that possesses an insatiable curiosity. As such, I use the Internet not only for work-related and entertainment purposes; I use it to satisfy every conceivable whim I encounter within my immediate environment on any given day.

For example, I often ask myself, “I like this song—I wonder where this band is from?” Or, “What other films has this director made?” Within seconds, Wikipedia has the answer. Last week, I overheard someone mention the country of Chad—a mystical place in west Africa. “Why haven’t I ever heard of this place?” I thought to myself. An hour later—thanks to Google—I was entrenched in all things Chad and was prepared to write an introductory discourse on the republic to attentive undergrads.

But as with all things in life, too much of anything is unhealthy. Except for maybe air guitar, chocolate cake, and dancing. But I digress. The trouble is we’ve reached a point with personal technology that it is so accessible, so immediately gratifying, and so demanding that digital indulgence is no longer just affecting information junkies like me. It’s affecting everyone. (more…)

Quotes are a curious thing. They’re presented entirely out of context, so most of them go unnoticed. In the right state of mind, however, they can have a reaffirming or insightful impact on the reader.

Here are five quotes that connected and resonated with me most this year:

1. “It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.”?Isocrates
2. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”—Old British proverb
3. “If you see someone on a high mountain, you can bet they didn’t fall there.”—Anonymous (Very similar to another one of my favorites from last year: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”)
4. “If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy. If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you’re not worthy…. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”—Bob Marley
5. “Everything happens for a reason. And some of those reasons are because you are stupid and make dumb mistakes.”—Anonymous

Editor’s note: The Anti-Technologist is a new column by Blake Snow. It advocates late adoption of consumer technology until proven useful, and dishes advice from Snow’s forthcoming book, Finding Offline Balance in an Online World.

In 2009, I had a radical idea. “What if I cancelled my phone’s data plan?” This was undoubtedly a first-world problem—I get it. But for someone who had previously spent 1,300 consecutive days attached to a Blackberry or iPhone from wake until sleep, it mattered.

The catalyst behind the idea: A weeklong trip in a remote Montana cabin with family and friends. No cellphone coverage. No internet. Just a landline, a moose lick, a horseshoe pit, and a river running through it.

Although initially apprehensive about the trip—”How am I suppose to continue my affair with work while on vacation now!?”— I was molded by it within a matter of days. As my wife said at the time, “With no online distractions, the social aspect had dramatically improved.” (more…)

Regular Smooth Harold readers and those closest to me already know I take a hardline to offline balance. With exception to the rare 2-3 emergencies per year, I don’t open email or answer work-related calls on nights, weekends, or during mini vacations. I killed my phone’s data plan three years ago, and I quit Facebook two years ago.

Furthermore, unless its for leisure, educational, shopping or correspondence reasons, I try to stay away from my iPhone, Chromebook, iPad, desktop or any other internet-connected device as much as possible during down time. The strategy has made me a better person, worker, husband, father, recreationist, adventurer, brother, and friend. I’ve even managed to increase my income, despite working fewer hours.

That said, I’m not the only one to have found offline balance. In fact, my approach would largely only work for similar extroverts with similar compulsion disorders. Simply put, there are other ways to find offline balance. (more…)

Here’s some scientifically tabulated advice. They’re called the top five regrets of the dying. In short, a nurse that took care of people on their deathbeds recorded the most common regrets. They are as follows, followed by my pithy commentary: (more…)

Rachel Stafford recently shared some awesome tips on how to neglect your children. Here are some of my favorites:

• Keep your phone turned on at all times of the day. Allow the rings, beeps, and buzzes to interrupt your child midsentence; always let the caller take priority. (more…)