If you follow the CIPR Conversation then you may be familiar with one of the latest blogposts, from Graham Jones, Internet Psychologist.
I would challenge you to consider his proposition and tell me there isn’t a part of you that doesn’t agree with him, that you should ‘Get rid of your smartphone if you want to succeed‘.
I’ve read and responded so I won’t spoil your fun by detailing his musings through mine, though I will admit to it getting my grey matter moving.
Smarty-phone pants
Ironically, I read and responded to the post using my android smartphone and am sitting on my train journey home drafting (and by the time you read it, publishing) this.
Perhaps my approach and circumstances make me more unique in that my daily round-trip commute from Dundee to Edinburgh and back affords me time to invest in blogging, tweeting and learning; time that I otherwise would struggle to find.
I also have spare time beyond this which most people won’t, especially if you are a full-time parent.
Certainly any continuous professional and personal development I undertake and societal contributions I make are done so out of a conscious awareness that I have this time available to me right now.
There’s no point sitting back twiddling my thumbs and letting life pass me by. I want to be proactive and avoid wasting the opportunities life can make available.
Batteries not included
Since the Spring this has meant focusing on digital and especially social media. And my android, despite its awful battery life and at times painfully slow response, has been pivotal to my strategy and plans.
Having said that, there is a certain utopian charisma about Graham’s vision, harking back to times when the day wasn’t so incessantly driven by content, data and information.
If you’ve ever gone offline for a few days then you’ll know only too well just how cathartic an experience it can be.
This picture, abound with memories, taken near Kyle of Lochalsh, for me epitomises such (enforced) bliss. Enforced, because reception is so poor you can hardly send a text nevermind access internet. I’m not joking.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
As I conclude in my CIPR Conversation response, having recently found it a challenge to get as active outside work as normal, there is certainly a part of me that recognises the beauty of android abstinence.
However, being digitally connected through my smartphone has presented me social networking, learning and development opportunities I would have at best taken far longer to find, at worst never have discovered.
So I don’t think abstinence is the secret. Rather, like many aspects of life, it is about moderation and balance.
You see, the times I manage to get that right I definitely experience sustainable differences to productivity, and personal health and well being: I find time for the gym and am able to get myself more physically active, which definitely stimulates my endorphines and helps get the feel good factor going.
Then again, I’m a healthy body, healthy mind person (not that it’s a mantra always adhered to it – it’s about balance, mind!).
So tell me, how do you manage it? I’m interested to know. Are you paranoid about the android or glad about the ipad?
Take it easy
MarCommsKenny
Blether And Blogger 