Generations

As an artist I’m always looking for ways to protect my time. Making work in my studio requires a level of focus that requires a certail level of disconnection. When it’s time for me to make work, I’ll close my email, my messages, turn off my phone, and sometimes even turn off the wifi to make the disconnection complete. At this point I feel free to create.

As a result, I’m already pretty sensitive to how intrusive smart phones are. In fact I even started an analog clock company called OneClock that gives people a nice-looking, disconnected alternative to keeping their phones on their nighstands as alarm clocks. My wife and I, and both of our teenage daughters (14 and 16) all leave our phones downstairs at night. So I feel like we’re already pretty mindful of smartphone use, the effects of being tethered to screens much of the day, and the downsides of being so connected.

That said, I was really curious to try the Punkt MP02 to see how different it really is. We can all just put our phones away or put them in airplane mode, right? Yes, doing this is possible, but it doesn’t achieve the same sort of disconnection.

My 14 yo daughter and I were going to the mountains to visit my parents for the weekend, and I thought it would be interesting to also make this my Digital Detox weekend. I wanted to see how it would play out across three generations: my parents, me, and my teenage daughter.

The first thing I noticed when I put my iPhone away was how much other people are on their phones. Especially my mom, who at 75, always has her phone on her, using it to take and share photos, to watch videos, to read about places she wants to travel, and to hound her kids for more pictures of her grandkids.

The problem is, she doesn’t really undertstand how to use her phone very well. She’s trying to organize and edit and share thousands of photos, and 9 times out of 10, she gets frustrated or annoyed that the phone won’t do what she wants it to do. It’s sort of an abusive relationship where she is the addict.

Having given up my iPhone for the weekend, the first thing that I noticed was how much my mom was on her phone. She was using her phone/laptop/ipad to try to connect with my daughter, showing her hundreds of photos and videos. I sat across the table, watching, getting more and more frustrated. Is this what “connection” between a grandmother and granddaughter looks like?

I showed the MP02 to my mom, and told her about the Digital Detox Challenge. At first she thought it was a calculator. I told her that it’s one way to take a break from smartphones, and that this can be a good thing. But the concept of the MP02 was lost on her — she had no interest in it. Probably because it doesn’t have a camera.

My mom has always taken tons of pictures. In her view, if it doesn’t exist in photographic form, it’s almost as if it didn’t happen. Photographs for her, are a way of proving that you are alive, and that you have lived a life. Having spent most of my life as a professional photographer, I can understand this perspective, but it’s not what I believe. I think that the best form of photography is the one where we are fully engaged with the present, and being aware of special moments that require deeper attention so that we can remember them clearly for good. Our eyes and brains are the best camera / hard drive combo out there!

Interestingly, my daughter Bridger — even though she is 14 years old and in the throes of her freshman year of high school — is very mindful of her smartphone use. She’s not really interested in social media, and for the most part just uses her phone to make plans with her friends, practice her Japanese, and listen to music when she’s walking to school. She sees other kids in her class that are wholly addicted to their phones / social media, and it seems to scare her a bit. Each year, she maintains that one of her goals is to not get addicted to her phone. So far, she has done a great job of managing this on her own.

So there I was in the kitchen, watching my mom trying to connect with Bridger through her various Apple devices. It was a beautiful day outside in the mountains, and they were inside, looking at screens. But I knew that Bridger would rather be outside.

I tried to stay quiet, but couldn’t. Without trying to sound too annoyed, I asked them if they could take a break from the screens. My mom just rolled her eyes. Bridger stayed quiet.

Now I was the bad guy. I have been in this position before — our girls’ friends come over to our house, only to sit on the sofa, glued to their screens. I ask them to take a break, and many times I think they appreciate the gesture, but the pull of the smartphone is just too strong.

The next day was a beautiful sunny day. My mom and Bridger and I headed out for a hike. I brought the MP02, although it was only so I could get a photo of it. I didn’t need to have it with me. The first thing I noticed when we started hiking was that carrying the MP02 felt very different than carrying an iPhone in Airplane Mode.

The MP02 doesn’t have a camera, so rather than looking at things to photograph, I found myself paying closer attention with my eyes. Because I wasn’t able to capture images on my phone, I’d need to capture them in my mind, which requires a heightend level of attention. It really encourages the “purest” form of photography, which is engaging deeply with and seeing  the present.

And while the MP02 can call and text, the interface requires more time and effort than a smartphone. Due to this slightly higher barrier I found myself much less likely to take it out at a moment’s notice. The MP02 really encourages a sense of deliberate intention that helps keep it in your pocket more often. And if your phone is in your pocket more often, it frees up your senses more often so that you can experience the world more deeply in its analog form, rather than being sucked down a digital rabbit hole.

In the end, the MP02 had a way of shining light into the shadows and revealing things. By removing clutter, we can see more clearly. I also found that I used it to call people more to talk to them, which was nice.

Over the weekend, it made me feel like my mom could probably benefit from spending less time on her phone. Sadly, I don’t think this will happen, because her whole sense of existence is tied to her phone and her collection of images. On the flip side, I realized that my teenaged daughter is actually in a pretty good place, and has cultivated a healthy relationship with her smartphone.

All in all, it was a really interesting experiment that taught me a lot, and also surprised me. I look forward to incorporating the MP02 into my life as a way to focus on the more important kinds of connection. 

Jamie Kripke