Off the grid?

The younger you are, the more likely you are to be plugged into the grid of information technology on a fairly constant basis. If you’re not surfing the web or reading/writing email, you’re sending text messages or just talking on your cell phone (which seems so old fashioned now, doesn’t it?).

Will there come a day when all of this will be such an intrinsic part of people’s lives – will in fact be something they’ve never experienced being without – that it will feel physically uncomfortable for them to unplug?

Or is that just an illusory fear, based on a misunderstanding of the human mind? I was talking with a friend about this today, a fellow “knowledge worker” who is generally plugged in all day long. I asked him when was the last time he was off the grid. I mean really off the grid – no internet or texting or even phone.

He told me it was the time he went camping last year. I asked whether he had felt strange or uncomfortable. He told me that actually it hadn’t been a problem, because he’d been too busy to be uncomfortable. That makes sense to me. You’re always doing something when you go camping, and the constant physical activities – hiking, setting up your tent, gathering wood, making a fire, cooking – are very pleasant ways to occupy your brain, to feel it working together with your body. And that, after all, is the function for which the human brain has been optimizing throughout all stages of human evolution.

My friend also said that if he were cut off from the grid but then had nothing to do all day except sit around, that would be uncomfortable.

And that also makes sense. After all, down through the ages, long before people had the Web or texting or cell phones, they’ve had all kinds of equivalent information-rich activities to occupy their time: dancing, talking, playing sports, walking through the park, painting a picture, picking out a tune on the piano or zither. We’ve always been on the grid – it’s just been a different grid.

But being forced to just sit around all day with nothing to do? Well that’s also an age-old concept, equally immune to technological change. It’s called prison.