Suresh Menon: 'Appy Days
Suresh Menon is a writer based in India. He set out to change the world but later decided to leave it as it is
It seems these days people are no longer resolving to give up smoking or be kinder to strangers. Rather, they are aiming to spend less time on the internet. Recently I met a friend who spends so much time online that he has no time for his real job. “I think I must get myself one of those things,” he said. “You know that app… I can’t remember the name… I’ll have to look it up on the net.”
Without being aware of it, he was speaking of the Freedom app which unplugs you from the internet for up to eight hours a day – the addict’s redemption, the professional’s way out or whatever you want it to be.
In a couple of generations, we have moved from EM Forster’s motto, “Only connect”, to Freedom’s recommendation, “Only disconnect.”
It is a wonderful commentary on the human situation that we spend millions and billions on developing and marketing labour-saving devices, and then force ourselves to sink further millions to keep us from using them because, as TS Eliot said in another context, we are being “distracted from distraction by distraction.” We invent the television and then try to figure out ways of not watching it so we can use that time for either productive work, or simply leisure. We drink coffee decaf, have yogurt without fat, sugar substitutes, and go to art galleries whose theme is ‘Nothing’ – blank canvases on display.
To have, must necessarily be followed by to have not. Psychologists recommend ‘news fasts’, days when you are told to keep away from newspapers, phones, television, even local gossip, so the day is not dominated by ‘breaking’ or any other kind of news. The counter-Wikipedia will consist of a large number of blank pages so whatever you look up, you will be greeted by a blank page. It is the visual cousin to the soundlessness that doubtless will soon be a feature of silent iPods.
For years, on holidays, we worried about the strength of communication signals — would our mobiles work, would we be able to connect to the internet? Now, the true holiday is to areas where you have to pay extra for not having a signal for your phone, for not having internet connections or television or the local drummer boy running through announcing the entertainment for the evening. ‘Back to the future’ about sums it up.
Now if only they had apps that could help smokers give up their habit, or those with a roving eye, stick to the straight and narrow. Perhaps they do already. We just need to check the internet.
