I received an email from one of my favourite brand Innocent who makes some of the best smoothies on the market challenging me to a 48 hours unplugged event where I would have to do away with my technology and just do things the old school way, relax and just be present without sharing on social media. It’s a free festival in the middle of nowhere, and it was a beautiful setting with a lot of greenery that I wouldn’t normally get back in London. Unfortunately due to other commitments, I couldn’t attend for 48 hours, but I attempted it for 24 hours and it had its pros and cons for me.
Prior to the festival, I was send an insta-print camera so I can still capture images, although I couldn’t help but bring my DSLR, but having the insta-pics camera means I can have more fun taking pictures with people I meet at the festival or just capture moments. At the festival grounds, they had cool signs encouraging your to put your tech away as you make your way through the woods, and they were cool, just like Innocent, if you ever follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Fast forward, they had some bands playing their songs, they were talented and some talks, for example there was a talk about ‘turning on the light’ for others, where you are tasked with a challenge to go about your day making at least one person on your commute feel better and showing your care.
Back to the technology part of the festival, after 15 minutes of being there, I couldn’t help but start thinking about pictures I would capture and the greenery, the woods that I would like to capture and share as I was enjoying my drink and watching the band play. The beauty of not having any network connection at the festival was actually liberating, I had nothing to worry about, no emails, no Whatsapp messages, no social media pinging in my pocket, my mind was actually there, I was actually present, and it poses the question whether technology is actually doing more damage to humanity especially mobile technology? on the other hand, I couldn’t tell the world about my experience until now, when I’m putting my thoughts down on this blog post. Actually when I left the festival, I was very quick to see what I’d missed and again got me displaying a great deal of FOMO, whether my friends have mentioned anything we will be up to the next day or have they invited me to something cool I may be missing out on?
So after the festival, I learnt to control when, where and how I use my smartphones; it reminded me of how to pay full attention when talking to others and put my phone away. When was the last time I was able to travel or go somewhere nice and not worry about the images I capture?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
