Three Reasons Why It’s Time to Spring Clean Your Tech Life

No this isn’t an “anti-tech” piece, but just like you might do a spring clean each year at home, why not do one for your digital life? And why not do it now?

I HEART TECH.

Yes, I yelled that out in those disturbing full caps because I wanted to ensure no one pins me as a Luddite or bunker-ensconced end-of-days type.

As proof of my tech affair, I’m currently writing this in Google Docs on my souped-up MSI gaming laptop listening to Spotify and keeping a random eye on news stuff via Twitter and Feeder (an RSS feed).

This is not a piece about getting rid of tech or turning off the internet. Hell no.

And I’m not going to encourage you to go cold turkey on your digital life because unless you can build a bunker in the middle of Greenland and have the resources to never need the outside world again, it’s actually nigh-impossible to do that.

Neither am going to rant about the evils of tech or a modern digital life because there is still so much that can be good about it — really useful stuff that makes life easier, more efficient and just plain better.

Or, as Bill Heslop from the iconic Aussie film Muriel’s Wedding would say:

BUT…towards the end of 2019, mostly because I’m addicted to a couple of podcasts like Pivot, Recode Decode and Today Explained, amongst others, I made a decision to run a broom through my digital life and clean it the hell up.

Here’s how and why.

Three ways I “Kondo-ed” my tech and digital life

(1) Stop Handing Over (ALL) Your Data

This is the most obvious de-Kondo-ing, right?

The ole “data” bugbear.

Data collection means that no matter what anyone else says, the internet is not free. Even as I type now, thanks to my “free” suite of Google Docs, I’ve agreed to Google’s privacy policy, which uses a lot of words to basically say all Cookie Monster like “Hmmm, Dataaaaaaaaaaaaa, me like Data”, with a big NOMNOMS in for good measure. Same goes for Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Wechat, TikTok etc.

Governments are slowly pivoting to tackle this issue, but as an individual, you must also protect your privacy. Think of it like buying a new property with huge windows. The builder might design in some aspects of privacy by maybe tinting the glass or following building codes around where windows should be, but ultimately when you move in, it’s up to you to decide what kind of curtains you want to block out the outside world when you’re wandering around half-naked in your underwear…unless you enjoy that, but let’s just leave that conversation right there…

The main way I’ve attended to data and privacy is by rebooting my social media. Twitter, gone. Facebook, deactivated. Insta…OK, I kept Insta but luckily I have in some ways silo-ed it away, so even though it has a tonne of locational data on me, and yes, Zuck & Co own it so I’m still giving the Facebook crew some data, I’m a little less concerned. This is particularly because I’m not part of the SOB (Selfie-Obsessed Brigade), which means that Insta will know a lot about where I’ve been #travel and what I’ve eaten #foodz #coffeeporn, but will struggle to know who I am because #SayNoToSelfies

After shutting down my original accounts, I opened new Facebook and Twitter but only as “dumb” accounts with very little personal detail, generic email address and, most importantly, getting rid of all engagement with the platforms. I’m going to be a lurker on Twitter because it’s still useful for media junkies like me, and I’ve set up a new Facebook account so I can still use messenger, which will admittedly steal some data from me but this will be minuscule compared to what it knew previously from over ten years of interactions with my old account.

I’ve kept Google, which was tricky for me because I know in many ways it is even more of a data vampire than Facebook or any other number of the tech cos. But I’m using incognito a lot more, switching to Duck Duck Go for some searching and using a VPN when I’m super concerned about privacy.

I haven’t turned location services off on my iPhone, although it is only turned on for apps that require it to work. I heard a great tip from Kara Swisher’s son on her latest Recode Decode podcast about turning “significant locations’ (under privacy=>location services=>system services), and after reading what it does, you might want to follow suit.

There are other some simple things you can also do, like having your browser clear it’s cache regularly, not storing usernames and passwords (good for the memory too!) and unsubscribing to all those pesky emails you get on an hourly basis (more on that in a moment).

Speaking of email accounts, I have six. AGH, complicated, I hear you groan, as if I need more places for all the emails to come. Roll with me here, there is a rationale to it. Having a range of email accounts — what I call “g-mail buckets” — is a way to corral your life. I have a basic email address for friends, families and necessities like banking, utilities, news etc; a travel email (you guessed it, for travel, go figure); an “online” account all the more generic online interactions I need to make, for example, subscriptions, internet purchases etc; a business account for all work-related email; and a couple of other niche accounts you don’t need to know about because #privacy.

The other positive of g-mail bucketing is that if you do have several tech devices you access mail on, most apps/programs allow you to manage those accounts, meaning you might only decide to receive certain emails on certain devices. Or, even better, when you’re on holidays or out of office hours, you can flip the not-fun email accounts off and only receive emails from the fun ones.

(2) Turn Down the Noise

The internet is busy busy noisy noisy. So much shouting on the socials. Advertising in every web and cranny. Lots and lots of stuff to listen to, read, watch and, of course, to buy BUY BUYYYYYY.

For the time-poor, it can make life easier. Catching up on news or what your friends are doing on socials during the commute home. In just a couple of clicks on Amazon, ordering that pair of trainers you MUST have. Netflix suggesting shows (ie curating your viewing menu — or creating a viewing echo chamber where you only watch certain kinds of shows — YUCK) it thinks you’ll like rather than you oh-so-laboriously (not) scrolling through what’s on offer.

However…it’s too much, right?

We don’t need all that coming at us a million miles an hour.

The solutions are simple.

1. Unsubscribe. Each time you get an email, especially if it is your gut instinct to bin it without reading it, unsubscribe instead.
2. Turn off Notifications. When a notification comes up on your desktop or mobile device, stop for a moment and decide whether you really need that disturbance in the force regularly disrupting your flow. And if not, turn the notification off. Yes, FOMO, but you’ll live.
3. Delete Apps/Software. Scroll through your phone or take a look at the hard drive of your computer and offload all those apps or software you hardly use or haven’t opened in ages, particularly apps, which even if not used can still chew up power and syphon off data.
4. Stop Clicking. I’m not just talking internet ads here, although they are a trap it’s easy to fall into (of course I need that male girdle because then I won’t need to lose that 6 lbs at the gym…derp). It’s the likes and shares and reposts I’m talking about. I know the socials would cease to exist without this interaction, and I also know HOW TEMPTING it is to engage because we all want to be liked, so we like in return (wasn’t that a Rihanna song? No?), but this is just another cheeky way the FAANGS (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) get us to hand over data and try to RULE OUR LIVES #TheAppsThatAteMyBrain. If you can’t completely stop, at least pull back a little (see below about chilling and sipping…)
5. Use Night Shift/Do Not Disturb. I love that Apple has built this functionality into its more recent IOS’s (Android too). I have mine set from 9pm-5.45am (yup, I’m a lark, so up with the dawn). This doesn’t mean I stop using my devices completely during this period, but it has definitely reduced my device/tech use as it gets closer to sleepy time and that’s a damned good thing.

(3) Chill before serving, sip before you drink

The third tip I have is some great advice I already knew and was pretty much following but had reconfirmed recently listening to a podcast.

It concerns social media specifically and follows the old adage of “look before you leap”, or, as the podcast put it, “chill before serving”…with my add on of “sip before you drink”.

Interaction lies (supposedly) at the heart of why we do the socials. In their most pure form, they are all about sharing cool stuff with our networks and this is actually probably true for about 50% of socmedia interactions. However, these businesses are about making money and they are going about it in so many ways. And they are doing well because we humans are reactionary by nature and have as our very cores egos that support differing levels of narcissism within us, but we can control this.

Simply, we don’t need to like, emoticon, comment or share every time we meander through our socmedia platforms. Our friends and family will still love us if we don’t. Maybe you’ll lose some of your followers on the socials when you become less interactive, and if you’re an influencer (don’t get me started on this…), it’s a way of making many pretty pennies, so interaction can’t be completely dismissed.

I’m not saying become a socmedia teetotaller who “never takes a drink”. But it won’t ever hurt to “chill before serving” or think before you interact/react and quite literally “chill” the hell out before getting in over your head — we’ve all been there — and then sip before you drink, or slow down when you do interact and err on the side of a little interaction rather than a lot.

To finish up, I’m gonna shout it again, so block your ears or cover your eyes.

I HEART TECH.

It is here to stay and should be for the good it brings, as is a digital life many of us have so intertwined into everything we do and has become part of our DNA.

You can still make the most of the positives of tech and digital by just managing it all a little (or a lot) better, which might give you more time to — call me cray — read a book or two instead of bingeing the next big thing on Netflix.

Or walk the dog without tripping over as you scroll distractedly through Insta or Facebook in a liking/sharing/commenting frenzy.

Or climb a mountain to enjoy the moment rather than share the selfie.

Or TALK to your friends and family instead of using socials as a proxy for conversation.

It might just give you some clarity…simplicity…peace.

You might even like it this way.