Another Monday has rolled around (is it just me that can’t believe it’s February tomorrow?!) and to celebrate the start of another week on the treadmill, we have a lovely guest blogger. Jenny and I have been “tweeting” and she very kindly responded to our request for guest posters. There’ll be more from Jenny later in the year, but in today’s post she writes about “De-Teching” – a scary prospect for most of us but perhaps worth a shot?

Jenny's business = Supernatural Kids Clothing

“I love many aspects of the modern technological world, but times are very trying I find. At the moment I’m trying to get my business off the ground.  I’m trying to keep on top of bringing up the kids (5, 12 and 16) (!!).  Trying to remember to talk nicely to my lovely patient other half, and be equally as nice back. Trying to maintain some sort of a social life without drinking too much or even smoking! (Not a puff for 1 1/2 years now).  And, on top of all this I’m TRYING to get to grips with technology: uploading and downloading; how to create and what to do with jpegs, psds and pdfs, photoshopping; being an amusing and savvy tweeter and facebooker! Arghhhhhhhhhh!  So much of it is like learning a foreign language from scratch.  Am I the ONLY eejit in the world who doesn’t know how to zip?  (lol)

My poor old MAC seems to be feeling the strain.  (Well when I say ‘old’, I’m actually only talking two years of age). It takes soooooo long to do anything from logging on to opening attachments – even with the help of an extra gadget to boost my mega drive – or what ever the hell! Me and my MAC just want to explode with all the extra information that we’re being forced to carry and understand.

Or are we?  Forced I mean. Recently there’s been a lot written about Susan Maushart – the single mum who decided to unplug herself and her three teenagers from technology for 6 whole months!!! Her main worry “was that we had ceased to function as a family.  We were just a collection of individuals who were very connected outwards – to friends, business, school and sources of entertainment and information.  But we simply weren’t connecting with one another in real space and time in any sort of authentic way’. 

During the experiment, which her kids were amazingly happy (ish) to go along with, they ate and talked and played together more, became more creative with their time – picking up hobbies and skills that had been overtaken by TV, computers and games consoles. They studied and slept better without the distractions of the computer, TV and phone screens.  Most importantly, they learned how to give each activity, whether work or leisure, their undivided attention which meant that everything had more depth and meaning and made it more enjoyable to be part of.

The whole experience hasn’t weaned them all off technology for life exactly, but it has given them all a bit of a breather and an insight and experience of a slower, maybe more considered, way of spending their days. I’m seriously thinking of doing something similar – maybe not quite as drastic, but it would be really nice to feel on top of things again … or at least to try to! 

Susan Maushart suggests that we shouldn’t fear setting boundaries – “even if it’s only pulling the plug out of the wall before you go to bed”.  It’s true that taking away these perceived necessities from our, lets face it , rather over-indulged kids is a very scary thought.  But what about having a technology-free week.  Or, because we all, (even the 5 year old), use computers at school and work, maybe I could introduce a cut-off time for all technology (including the TV), so that we begin to interact face to face. De-teching sounds really cool actually.  Watch this space and I’ll let you know more – via my computer of course!”

I think the idea in principle of De-Teching sounds fantastic – I’d love to be able to do something like that but then I wonder about the practicalities of it when a lot of us are trying to grow our small businesses? Will it have a negative effect, or on the contrary, would we relax more which in turn will make us better at business and more focused? Hm….

Thanks so much to Jenny for guesting for us. You can catch up with Jenny via Facebook where she hosts a page for Supernatural Kids Clothing and also on Twitter too.