“All of man’s miseries stem from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal
When I think about the challenge of living in the modern world, the constant that continually crosses my mind is that we are so unable to revel in silence anymore. We fill the potential silence with noise, continual distraction, the inability to sit with our thoughts. Music, podcasts, audio books, we have the content available to never have to sit with ourselves ever again.
I have started to, when driving alone, to turn off all music and noise and just be in the silence as I drive. This time is helpful to re-center, to think about that which all of “this” is, and to find some semblance of peace. I could, instead, listen to my 40th audiobook of the year, or that podcast in which the guests are saying nothing of purpose or value for the 3rd time this week.
That is the thing - nothing at all is being said. Nothing is being brought up that would make this existence “more” or “better”. In fact, the more that I consume, the less that I feel that I am anyone at all.
With children at home, with a family, there is never a quiet moment. But - I love the noise and fun that comes with it. The difference is that there is nowhere we can seemingly go today without the noise - the notifications and the colors and lights and sounds that are designed to have us give over our attention so as to become better consumers. The “noise” that my children produce is nothing in comparison to the algorithmic noise that is meant to keep me from finding and talking to God. In fact, the noise my children produce bring me closer to God.
Let us discuss how to get back to the silence.
Phone#
I see some people’s phones and am horrified by that which I see: Notification blobs everywhere, taking up their whole screen and pinging constantly. It is a wonder that people have any attention span at all these days. These applications are designed to be that little bird in your ear, telling you that they are right there so that you can spend your ever decreasing time on this Earth scrolling mindlessly. People literally watch others livestreaming their life - instead of living their own.
On my phone, I have simply disabled all notifications that are not phone calls. Even then, I set daily periods of airplane mode between 9pm - 9am in which I am unreachable and offline
People know they can reach me by calling me. When I pick up, I say “hello, what’s wrong” - I don’t want to be disturbed. In the future, I will only have a data plan: no phone number, and only authenticated methods such as xmpp for voice will be allowed. My phone will remain in airplane mode for most of the day.
The thinking that we should always be accessible is asanine, it is the affliction of the age that must be fought against with ruthlessness.
Desktop#
On my computers, I have turned off the notifications center in noctalia shell, so I literally never get any notifications whatsoever. I never seen anyone pinging me, emails coming in, messages on any applications, etc. I check IRC a few times every other hour, but otherwise have no idea if anyone is trying to reach me.
I no longer allow unfettered browser usage, and limit the browser to certain hours of the day. I believe that unmetered and uncontrolled access to the internet is not something that is healthy to the human being, yet it is now commonplace with the little computer in our pocket, you would be considered quite “weird” to do limit connectivity - well, so be it!
Email#
Email is supposed to be asynchronous by default. Instead of replying immediately, I check emails once at 9am and once at 4pm. No more than this.
Again, I include in my emails that if anything urgent needs to be handled, to simply call me. I get so many interesting emails on a weekly basis and want to reply to them all, so this batches my time to give quality responses and encourage interaction.
Social Media#
I have never understood how people have notifications across a half dozen applications on their devices, but were I to allow social media on my phone (I don’t), I would recommend turning off all notifications and never going back. The best way to mitigate this point of noise is to not install it in the first place.
Analogue Offramps#
The more that I use technology, the more I want analogue methods of communication and work. So, I defer to my notebook and pen daily. Once an evening, I then organize these notes in my org-mode setup. Face to face communication is preferred over phone calls or texting.
Peace#
The time has always been ripe to reclaim the peace that we are meant to have. Everyone is moving so quickly without thought of where we are going, and it is detrimental to the human being. So, turn it all off.
The world wants you to live on fear, of missing out, of missing the proverbial train. But nobody ever asks “where is the train going?”
Perhaps it is better to miss the train than to be driven off the cliff with everyone else.
As always, God bless, and until next time.
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