The Unplugged Revolution

The insistent cry of an alarm clock pierces your sleep. Another day has arrived. You drag your body out of bed. The first thought is of coffee – the only thing that offers a bit of solace. You switch on the kettle. The toaster spits out some processed bread. You read the packaging. More packaging. You wonder why they needed to add extra vitamins. Sigh. They must’ve stripped them all out in the first place, and then replaced them with the laboratory-manufactured version. You dress, brush your teeth and make your way to the car. On a good day it takes half an hour to drive in to the office. You listen to your language CD, or your Mozart, trying to make up for the mindless waste-of-time that is rush-hour traffic. Finally, you get to the office. You switch on your computer to a flood of emails. Your cellphone starts buzzing with birthday reminders and text messages. Fax machines and printers spit out paper. Clutter.

In the past twenty years, these devices have infiltrated our daily lives. And despite the many benefits they have to offer – communication, travel, entertainment – these machines and the technologies that underpin them also have the equal and opposite effect of being too consuming, of weighing us down. Everything is ‘on’ and more and more people are consciously opting to switch off.

We are witnessing the beginning of an ‘Unplugged Revolution’ which has people going back to nature, exploring spirituality and embracing traditional practices like craft and gardening.


The pitfalls of the digital landscape

People are beginning to question some aspects of digital life, such as being ‘always on’ and permanently available, seeing it increasingly as a downfall of a 21st century way of life. Our brains are largely being rewired to skim information. Reading is becoming less of a leisure activity. Web journalists have to use a prescriptive method in their writing, including external links and bullet points to make content easier for their readers to consume. People generally display shorter attention spans nowadays, amplified by a wave of messages that they are bombarded with each and every day. The quantity of messages has long superceded the quality.

George Hegel, the 18th century German philosopher, proposed the ‘Pendulum Theory’ stating that once a certain phase in history has reached its necessary conclusion, it will be replaced by its equal and opposite phase. A resolution is then reached, which replaces the previous models. With this in mind, it is easy to see how living amidst all the gadgetry and technological clutter, there would be a pull in the opposite direction towards living a more simple clutter-free life with more time available for the things that matter most – family and friends.

Eventually we will hopefully establish some sort of balance, whereby the technologies that we live with will happily co-exist with a more natural way of life that humans innately yearn for. People are remembering the magic that lies in ‘being’ as opposed to always ‘doing’.

Written by Loren Phillips

For the rest of this observation, visit any leading bookstore nationwide and pick up your copy of The 2010 Flux Trend Review