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![Fiona Katauskas's view. Fiona Katauskas's view.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3BUUzmFAhrhLyX9rFCubPq5/1d186786-b6f6-48a2-bce2-9ba1a4ce651b.jpg/r0_0_2835_2045_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The signal returned several thousand feet above the serpentine Adelaide River east of Darwin. Suddenly, the phone started buzzing and pulsing like an enraged hornet, the intrusion on my reverie about as welcome as a Sunday morning leaf blower.
For several days, I had been out of range. No wi-fi, no phone. The back of beyond. Just simple immersion in nature, First Nations food and culture and the fellowship of strangers likewise digitally unmoored.
The torrent of alerts - news and social media - that arrived with the signal was mostly junk. A sorry distraction from the raw beauty unfolding below. When it finally ceased trying to grab my attention, the phone was put back to work photographing the landscape through the window of the tiny Cessna.
I'd always been sceptical about the so-called digital detox, suspecting it was just another buzz phrase dreamt up by the wellbeing industry. But having experienced it properly for two complete days - and partially for three others - I felt sharper and more focused. I also had a break from Cranky John, that alter ego too readily riled by the smallest infractions the digital world throws my way. "Coronated" instead of "crowned", "there" instead of "their" or "they're", "agreeance" instead of "agreement", ads for hearing aids, and those mindless community Facebook pages - you know the rest.
The information superhighway promised us by Paul Keating all those years ago is more like a noisy, congested and chaotic Kolkata intersection.
A survey of 1000 Australians by health insurance company Medibank revealed scrolling through social media as one of the top five stressors, up there with money, health, relationships and work troubles.
Yet we are addicted to our devices, especially our phones. The same survey showed 32 per cent of respondents listed losing their phone as a major source of stress. Of them, 43 per cent of Gen Z respondents and 34 per cent of millennials listed losing their phone as their number-one trigger for anxiety.
A 2017 study by the American Psychological Association found that 43 per cent of Americans were "constant checkers", dipping constantly into social media, emails and texts and 18 per cent of them associated the use of digital technology as a source of stress.
Constant checking was, for me, at its worst during the early days of the pandemic. Like countless others I fell into the trap of doom scrolling - desperate for the latest shred of information on the global emergency. My mood darkened, even though I was locked down with a glorious view of the ocean and able to work from home. Life had its difficulties but I was better off than most.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the bad habit returned. This time, though, I was suckered into push notifications, those annoying alerts that pop up on your phone with indecent frequency, often directing you to stories that aren't that new or interesting. Again, despondency sat on my shoulder.
I've developed a couple of strategies over the years to improve my relationship with my phone. At home, it's banished from the bedroom and it's always set to silent. But I'll readily admit I'm still addicted to the damned thing. The shameful screen time report my phone sends me every week confirms that addiction.
After my time in the disconnected wilderness, I'll take a few more steps. Turning off push notifications is top of the list. Scheduling time to check emails is another. If anything is extremely urgent, the person will call. And the phone itself will be turned face down to be checked, like the email, only periodically.
It's time to confront the addiction head-on.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Are you addicted to your devices? Does it distract you from the real world? Do you try to limit your own screen time? Could you live without being "connected" via your device? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- An internal investigation is under way and a NSW police officer's status is being reviewed after a 95-year-old woman was Tasered in a Cooma aged care facility. Clare Nowland was Tasered after she was found holding a knife at Yallambee Lodge about 4am last Wednesday.
- Cape York leader Noel Pearson has lashed out at fellow Indigenous leader Mick Gooda as a "bed wetter" and not representing Indigenous people after he called for compromise on the proposed Voice to Parliament.
- Australia is hopeful China will next lift trade sanctions on barley imports in a fresh sign of improving trade relations. China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, on Thursday confirmed bans on Australian timber imports worth $600 million, which had been in place since 2020 after Beijing cited quarantine risks, had been lifted.
THEY SAID IT: "Our mobile devices are so powerful that they don't just change what we do, they're changing who we are." - Sherry Turkle
YOU SAID IT: Not surprisingly for a published author, Garry applauded the return of books and the rediscovered joy of reading them.
Rose, who is reading Secret Fleets by Lynn Cairns, says: "Our daughter gave it to my husband for his birthday. Our home is bursting with books, and we both subscribe to magazines."
Sandra says: "I am helping to sort books for the big book fair in Braidwood near Canberra on the June long weekend and found a copy of The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller. If you have read that wonderful book, do you know there is a sequel which Waller says he had to write as so many people wanted to know what happened? Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend is sad but equally beautiful. Life is meant to be reading or listening to books."
"Books have never been out of style in my family," says Maggie. "I send my 14-year-old triplet grandchildren a box of books for each Christmas and birthday - new ones, some of my old favourites, some that my kids enjoyed, whatever. Two of the grandkids devour them - inhale them, maybe. The third one takes it more slowly and is more selective, but I hooked him with Hitchhiker. They all cried over The Snow Goose. They are getting into the Tomorrow series. And these are all physical, paper pages that you turn with your hand and read in bed with a bed-lamp on."
Arthur says: "It is great to have some good news. While the internet is great for getting specific information on a topic - for example, the benefits and disadvantages of nuclear power - it is nothing like a relaxing couple of hours reading a novel. Even fiction can be very informative about all sorts of topics even when written primarily for entertainment."
"I am blind," says Andrew. "Thank goodness for audio books; and the text to speech (VoiceOver) in-built in my Apple devices. Once a month I attend the Audio Book Club at Vision Australia Hamilton, run by volunteers, and we report on what we have read over the last month. Thanks, Echidna, that the text in your political cartoons is readable by my computer. This is uncommon, and appreciated. It helps in working out the subject and commentary being made."