Life Like It's the 90s
Written by u/Max_Mushroom on Tue Nov 10, 2020, 11:26:02 GMT-0500 (EST)
Original link: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/jro07o

I was born in the early 80s so the bulk of my childhood was in the 90s. Looking back, that decade seemed to have the perfect balance of technology and life. Tech was advanced and accessible enough to make life super convenient, but it wasn't dominating our life 24/7 like it is today. You could do your banking, check the news and chat with friends online, but you weren't constantly connected. We spent waaaaay more time offline than we did surfing. We used technology, but today, technology uses us.

Twenty-five years ago, when you went online, you had a purpose. There was something you wanted to look up. You knew what you wanted to do, whether it was check the latest headlines, download a certain song, or reply to a friend's email. Granted, back then a lot of people paid for the internet by the hour or just wanted to limit time to keep the phone line open. But nowadays, we turn to our computer/tablet/and phone and allow it to just put us in a stupor. We ask it to entertain us. Just give us something, we don't care. We're at its mercy.

Like many of you, I fell into the trap day-after-day of pulling out the phone at the moment of idleness or boredom and began mindlessly scrolling. A lot of times, my mind would be completely blank as I scrolled. I was like a zombie. When I noticed my toddler son looking at me to play with him while I ignored him to respond to some asshat on Facebook, I knew I had to change.

While it's still an ongoing journey for me to limit my online time, I came up with my own mantra, "live like it's the 1990s," and made a few rules for myself to help me. (I must acknowledge there there some modern-world demands that necessitate modern-day technology like smartphones, so while we can't completely go back in time, there are a few things we can do to help revisit that lifestyle of yesteryear).

- Delete most apps on your phone. I'll start with the obvious one. I only have YouTube and a chat app I use to keep in touch with friends overseas. YouTube in case a friend texts me something they want me to see. No social media whatsoever. That stuff is poison. Delete it right away. This doesn't mean you need to delete your accounts, but just don't allow it to be so easily accessible.

- Take a book, magazine or newspaper to the toilet instead of your smartphone. Leave your phone somewhere else if you have to and take a magazine or book. Trying taking something about stuff you never cared about. You might find a new interest. With a phone, all you're gonna do is look up stuff you're already interested in and all that's doing is limiting yourself.

- Set time aside time (an hour or two a day) to get stuff done online and have a purpose. This is outside your online work time. Like a lot of people, I have to spend at least 8 hours a day online for my job but this also allows me to get a lot of my other "online stuff" done (paying bills, responding to messages, checking an order status) during this time. If I need extra online time, I try to limit it to an hour in the evening and I try to have a reason to go online. Don't just go online to mindlessly surf. Once you get your stuff done, log off and don't look back. Also, if there's something you suddenly want to look up (what's the name of that Hendrix song?), write it down and look it up later rather than just whipping that phone out.

- Meditate/stare into space. This is something I admittedly need to get better at. It's not easy. We all feel the need to have something "feeding" into our brains constantly, but remember when you were a kid and sometimes you'd just stop and think? Sometimes you'd imagine something funny or come up with a cool story. Do that again. Your brain is like a computer and sometimes it needs a reboot or a defrag. Stop, sit and think. Allow your mind to refresh.
 
- Make your bedroom a No Surf Zone. The importance of this cannot be overstated. There's been numerous studies showing that surfing on our phones before bed screws up our sleep patterns leading to tiredness, anxiety, depression etc. By all means, keep your phone nearby in case someone calls with an emergency or you need it for an alarm clock. But do not surf. Continue reading the book or magazine you had while on the toilet. Or better yet, meditate.
 
- Play board games. I love playing video games. My wife, not so much. So a fun thing to do together is play board games. I'm currently teaching her Chess. This not only keeps us both offline, it's just a good, fun bonding experience that many people don't do nowadays.

- Focus on offline hobbies. I used to love, love, love building model rockets as a kid. When I recently went through the crawlspace in my parent's house and discovered a few unbuilt models, I felt like I hit the jackpot. Not only did rediscovering my love of models give me something to do offline, it seriously gave me a feeling I haven't felt in over two decades. I'm sure you all have a similar hobby you enjoyed as a kid that didn't involve a computer. Pick it up and do it again.

- Put something else in your hands besides your phone. I watch a lot of news programs but it's a passive experience that doesn't require much attention. In the past, I'd listen to the news while scrolling on my phone. No more. I bought a book of Chess puzzles that keeps me occupied while I'm listening to the TV. And it forces me to use my brain! Same goes for when I'm sitting with my wife and she's watching something I couldn't care less about. Find something similar to do, maybe a word search or crossword puzzle. Exercise that muscle in your head while you're watching the tube. This is also useful if you commute to work on a train or bus and find yourself (like everyone else) just staring at their phones. (Yes, I know you can get puzzle apps on your phone, but there just something more "human" about having a book or paper in your hands. And you won't have to worry about an alert popping up in your face).

Like a lot of 80s babies, I often found myself asking how I can return to the "feelings" I had when I was a kid during the 90s. Sure, a lot of that is gone because we're adulting now, but I'm convinced a lot of the anxiety and depression that comes with modern day adulting is unnecessary and caused by our online addictions. Remember, use technology. Don't let it use you. I hope this helps!