Tech Torture with Topher: Topher unplugs

Not to be mean, but how about exercising?

Good luck! I work in the IT field and try very hard every day to NOT work from home. I find that simple things like email are the starter problem. I get an email that a user can't do this or can't do that, so i begin to investigate. The next thing I know, I have put in an additional 4 hours of work from home.

Best of luck,
Chuck

Dude. Dont kill yourself, Ive tried to do it.

try spending time with family or children. get out of the house.. go out to dinner with friends. read the newspaper to stay current on daily events!

Go for a bike ride! Go swimming! Take a girl out for a picnic! Remember back not 30 years ago when we didn't have computers in our lives! Play a board game... hang out with friends you can actually laugh WITH instead of telling them via ascII that you're laughing (out loud, nonetheless!)

My bet is that youll spend a majority of your time out in the world. My bet is that most of the time you spend out in the real world...youll be wondering if you have a new email. Or youll think of something really funny to update on twitter...or how the WOW community is doing. My bet is that you will sure be out and about with not much going on at home. I have a feeling youll spend most of it wishing you were back on the web.

Nathan Fritz said to "Go for a bike ride!" and much more. Excellent!

Another way to disengage from the Internet is to do work that is primarily physical – volunteer work like in a food pantry stocking and distributing food, cleaning trash from illegal dumps, Habitat for Humanity house-building, nature hikes with students, field trips gathering data for scientists, bird-watching.

And fishing. If you are fishing in a pond entirely on private property, no license is required, but fishing in public waters usually requires a license.

After I graduated from college, I found I have very little interest in football – high school, collegiate, or professional – probably because I don't personally know any of the players, and because I have seen enough games that it was time for me to engage my mind in other interesting things. I also realized that the players get paid, the officials get paid, the water boys get paid, the other workers get paid, the yabbering news hounds get paid to pay attention to the games – but I don't get paid. I won't watch football again until I get paid for doing so!!

I suggest you quit the fantasy football activities, as all you are doing is arranging data in interesting ways. Exercise your intellect with data from the real world (like fishing or bird watching) rather than the flood of frivolous information on the Internet.

Woof. Good luck dude. Atleast if it only limits web stuff, you can still use your iphone as an ipod.

The cable box is too much Technology. You really should not use that either. That said try reading a book taking a walk. A night out at a pub.

oh my....this is going to be harder than giving up Coke (either kind!). Good luck. Try not to get under your wife's feet too much.

I sort of snapped a few months ago when my cable went out and I realized I had an upset stomach at the prospect of dealing with my cable company. So.... I cancelled cable. Suddenly I found myself reading books! Cleaning my house! Sitting out in the sun with my cat! Next, for kicks, I reactivated my old cell phone which only receives calls and makes calls. It can record a voice mail but that's it. No camera, no texting, no web. The kink in my neck from bowing over the phone has gone away! Today I cancelled my home internet access. Heck – I'm at work ten or more hours a day, I can certainly get all my personal emailing done, and surf a website or two. I feel positively FREE, not to mention the couple of hundred dollars I'm saving a month! Very happy with all these decisions, and I hope you find a little of yourself that might have gotten lost in technology.

Interesting advise from everybody. How about taking up meditation to detox from ADHD that invariably comes from being online?

When "un-jacked" I tend to read – a lot. I also garden, which may or may not be an option for you. Household projects also tend to get done quicker when I'm not maintaining my "virtual life." Things like painting a room, or moving furniture around. Throw an "un jacked" party, no cell phones allowed! Living close to the local "night life" I can walk to many of the most popular restaurants and bars in town, so that's always fun. It's also much easier to do if you're on vacation, since you can just go camping somewhere without electricity/Wi-Fi/Cell service/phones etc. and just de-rez I do draw the line at music however. I need to have music while walking or whatever, and it's not that big of a jump from a walkman to an ipod/mp3 player, so I'd let you fudge there.

what you're trying to do i do every day. get a life.

some suggestions:

go outside. walk. run. bike.

got a family? pay attention to them.

no family, hit the social scene and meet a woman (or guy). (hint, don't talk about star wars or your inability to have a life w/out an electronic device)

paint. build models.

read a book.

travel.

golf. tennis. swimming. chess in a park somewhere.

this has got to be the lamest article and challenge i've ever heard of.

seriously. is this what the country has come to, people w/ the depth of a puddle carrying a silicon monkey on their backs?

My husband and daughter had that problem just a year ago – they had a 48-hour post-Ike power outage up in Pennsylvania so they had to drive to get hot meals, take cold showers, fill the fridge with ice to preserve the food. Meanwhile, I was visiting relatives 500 miles away who didn't lose their power. We all survived.

While I'm underemployed and spend too much time online while I'm home, if I'm working or on a trip I don't miss it too much.

Karen, gotta say I have a phone that just makes and receives calls. My husband has an iPhone, but I find the screen and keyboard too small to use.

If there is an emergency, you should have to go into the office to make this torture complete. One week should be no sweat. One month would be tough, but doable. Several months and you would really prove how tough you are.

The irony here is deafening.

I've found when I take a vacation from the web that I can tolerate people better. It can be too much to be exposed to the stupidity of humans en masse. Time alone, and I mean *alone*, helps my misanthropy.

Go for it man! Maybe you will continue with this disconnection, good luck!

I just got back from a week in the Caribbean. No mobile phone. No Internet. No computer whatsoever.

Of course, I did have sun, sand, bikinis and a paperback sci-fi novel to fill my time. Not to mention dining, snorkeling, and cold, cold beer.

Give up the TV, also (if you can–I dare you to try...).

Naturally, you won't -get- these comments until Tuesday morning...

Whats the point of torturing yourself? Just because you can? Kinda sick if you ask me...

Is the challenge to not use technology as entertainment? (ie. internet games, non-internet games, cell phone usage, etc.) Or is the challenge: no technology at all? (ie. no microwave oven)

The real question is.... do you use technology or does technology use you? In other words; do you decide or does the machine decide?

This is when I'm grateful to be 45. I remember what life was like before high-tech, heck even before cable, and I remember what I did in that life. I hung out with friends - in person. I read newspapers, books, magazines - the kind you hold in your hands. I went to movies - OUT to movies, not downloaded or Netflixed. I listened to the radio. I watched bad network TV. I think I might get rid of internet access at home ....

An admirable challenge for any IT type person. I'd love to do the same, unfortunately my job doesn't permit it so much. Telecommuting has it's benefits, but I'm a little worried that it's starting to suck the soul out of my personal life.

I honestly don't think it will be all that hard. I've gone days without getting on the computer, but you do really have to find something interesting enough that replaces being on the computer in order to ignore it. I find doing projects around my house, going out to the store to do a little bit of shopping does the trick. I spend time with my family or go outside with my daughter. She's one of the few kids in our neighborhood that plays outside...crazy I know. You still have some technology to keep you occupied...you could probably play some non online games, or catch a good movie. Maybe even go out to the movies. I saw someone say something about a bike ride...that would be good too or better yet go to the park...fishing? Maybe just a good walk. There is plenty to do, I work in the IT field and I'm ready to not be sitting in front of a computer when I get home. Though it does happen.

Good luck! I think you'll do fine.

And you don't have to spend time outdoors if you don't want to! Why do people always think there are only 2 choices – online or outdoors?

Get some friends together and do something none of you has tried before, like oil painting or French cooking or whittling – anything – and totally laugh at each other and at yourselves. Then throw all that stuff away order Chinese.

Go to the mall and laugh out loud at the outrageous prices people will (evidently) pay for stuff they don't need or even want. Then go to the library and pick up some free books and videos.

Use radio for your news – everything you need in 5 minutes – a real time-saver. But – is satellite radio "web-based"? If so, it's local broadcasts for you, or recorded music. Hey – audio books! There's an idea! They're free at the library too.

And is GPS considered "web-based"? because if it is, you'd better be good at reading maps (which, as a fellow geek, you probably are).

Can't wait to hear how you do!

Tortured, stressed out, die for the cause of profit
How will it end for poor Topher ?
Heart attack, stroke, diabetes, bad knees ?

Last year my wife and I visited Queen Charlotte Islands BC Canada for a week. No cell phone reception (we tried that). Left my laptop at home. No fast food, but lots of organic restaurants.

So life gets simple and basic again. Doing some low tech activities like beach combing or going on excursion with a zodiac, sleeping at places that somehow stayed in the 60s, talk to locals who really have plenty of time, well you get the drill.

I have some very good memories and did not miss the technology that much.

On the same train of thought as Karen, there's plenty of things to do once you realize you don't need to stay on the 'net. And it's really easy, since you'll end up doing physical things that don't give you time to think about stuff online.

As many people have already said, read a book. Or, really, read any books that's in your field of interest. (No need to pick up the latest teen horror story if you're a trekkie.) Get some exercise, especially if you're out in the suburbs. Maybe take up a hobby, like building plastic models or water-painting. It'll definitely help you relax and come to work invigorated.

I have a home computer that I turn on once a week to do banking and check e-mail, believe me it is possible to live not being connected 24/7! I also have no cell phone, just my trusty landline. Try just sitting quietly in the room and thinking. Hard telling what you will come up with!

Don't think this should be considered a tech torture, its more of a media consumption torture.

Especially since Internet is not a gadget, you are just going to be deprieved of access not the technology that allow u to use it.

Furthermore its not a fair challenge since you can still access the net while at work. Its not going to depreive you very much. You'll probably do okay without internet outside work cause you can substitute it with other consumption of media.

I hope the result won't sound something I can expect of now.

I think you'll be fine, in fact I bet once you get use to it you won't want to spend so much time online after your experiment. Maybe you'll get an opportunity to engage with people face to face...meet some real people. I think it used to be call socializing. Good luck man!!!!

New Media connectivity has become nothing short of an addictive engagement. Our jobs require it, and our lifestyles leave us with a sense that we would be "out of touch" with the world, on a social AND technological basis, if we did not own and use the latest HW and SW apps and devices.

I recently had my PDA stolen from me on a train. I spent a frantic night trying to contact all my next few days appointments (trying to remember email addresses or contact through FB or LinkedIn), and finally got 2 hours quick sleep, before rushing to the nearest T-Mobile store to spend far too much on a new PDA.

Karen (9/14, 5:38pm ET) is, IMO, on the right track, albeit perhaps further down the track than most of us might be willing to go! We need to reevaluate the merits of connectivity, as it relates to our Quality of Life. One needn't be a Luddite to realize that our "always on" mentality has actually disconnected us from the parts of our lives that bring the truest reward: the small and often unanticipated moments of intimate community that we share with our friends and family, pets and petunias...

Connecting via Facebook or MySpace is a compelling offering, but living via those platforms is as bad as conducting a romance on Match.com: it doesn't really go anywhere, it just SEEMS that way.

I advocate for a National Day of Digital Disconnection, not to encourage people to throw away their iPhones and DVRs, but to mentally reset them. A "reboot", if you will.

There are some great devices and applications in our lives, but we need to reprioritize our use of, and dependence on them. These are supposed to be facilitating tools, not crutches.

I think it depends on how easy or hard it can be. If you have other things to do to keep yourself busy, then it should be relatively easy. Although, if you're just sitting around doing nothing, then you'll most likely get bored and want to hop online to try and cure said boredom.

unplug and go to the gym. Seriously dude.

I work in technology and during the week I am generally am glued to the web and to my email. Once I am home in the evenings and also on the weekends I absolutely flat-out refuse to turn on my computer. I also frequently turn off my cell phone. My employer doesn't really like it very much, they want someone 24/7, I just tell them that they don't pay me for a twenty-four hour day and therefore any time after 6:00pm is my own!

Take time to get in shape – walking, biking – no more sitting

agreed with Jason, take up exercise... not only will it eat up some of that free time, but the health benefits make it a no brainer.

sad that it sounds like torture to give up twitter and world of warcraft... i can see how they might have some recreational value in moderation, but if you're spending all your off time doing that, maybe you should try extending this hiatus beyond a week!

Hello, yes learn to do ballroom dance and salsa dance and in no time you will get away from the computer, its so much fun, that sometimes when my friends text me and im on my way to salsa lessons its annoying, lol. Good luck and trust me its possible

Topher, enjoy your new found freedom. Take up a sport. Take the time to smell the roses. Go hang out and get your news from friends and family for once instead of online. Spend time with them and this time, really listen to them and simply enjoy chilling with them. we only live once afterall.

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