Breaking Free From The Digital World

 

Giveaway question: HOW easy is it for to contemplate BREAKING FREE FROM THE DIGITAL WORLD?  That's a tough call, dude, to say the least.  That explains why in the UK, they have coined the jargon 'OFFLINING', very much aligned as part of that growing response to WHAT is now recognized as a worldwide social problem with regard to that widespread 'addiction' to the net.   More than a decade back, this was a First World problem BUT as we speak now, this has become a worldwide issue ever since internet infrastructure in the Third World has become robust [although NOT that comparable to the First World yet].  So, here we are, all in a global village facing this dilemma📗📙📘

Let's face this issue point-blank.  'Internet addicts' describe the symptoms as spending too much time in our smart devices [either on our mobile smart phones OR smart TV's], WHICH means, spending significantly less time with one's immediate families in terms of 'family time' and interaction.  In the end, many of us [Ouchhh, many times over and over again, I've been guilty of this] end up trawling through that abundance of bite-size information instead of engaging with fully formed ideas.  Just yesterday, I got dragged with that internet 'NOISE' that US President Donald Trump was dead.  The next 10 to 15 minutes, I myself I got hogtied to that rumor, googling with NO conclusive end💚💛💜

On paper, OFFLINING should help us better manage our online and offline lives BUT given this increasing [I'll call it WORSENING] dependence on the web both at work and at home,the biggest question staring on is this:  Is OFFLINING still a viable option? YES, it is one thing to kind of pledge some offline activity every day and quite another story to literally quit the web for weeks and months on end.  Sadly, by today's prevailing conditions, the latter is nothing short of ascetic to say the least💧💧💧

I'll be the first to admit that OFFLINING is a relatively new phenomenon BUT its existence is already under that scary threat from the looming presence of Web 3.0.  Generally understood as the next big leap for the web, this Web 3.0 registers WHERE you are and even understands WHAT you are doing.  Do we remember multiple business applications dicing and drilling our WEB search behaviors, preferences and literally with cookies tracking every single click that happens. Of course, you can delete the cookies within your device BUT HOW often and HOW consistent do you clean it up?  And by that time, web vendors and product owners have already extracted your own unique data💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  In that looming future WHERE the web gets integrated into every conceivable aspect of our daily lives, OFFLINING is something still possible and useful.  BUT again, we heard all those 'horror stories' of smokers and alcoholics having failed to withdraw from their entanglement, my 2-cents here is that let us exert initially in OFFLINING via 'baby steps'.  SO HOW?  There's this simple yet realistic idea I overheard in the web.  Let us attempt OFFLINING initially during our Day of Worship, whether that's a Friday, Saturday OR Sunday, depending on one's religion.  Of course there are atheists.  That gives them leeway to choose their OFFLINING day.  YES dude, BREAKING FREE FROM THE DIGITAL WORLD is no mean feat😡😡😡