Only connect...
I have just spent a week on holiday and offline, ski-ing in the French Alps. Cut off from e-mail, the web, and social media and too mean to use my phone overseas, I have luxuriated in the mountain air, able to relax without the constant stimulation and information overload of our modern connected world.
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Actually, that is completely untrue. I took with me on holiday a smartphone and a tablet computer, just in case I happened to come across some wi-fi that was not ridiculously expensive. And then I happened to find that my hotel, 1800m up in the mountains, had just about the best free wi-fi network I have ever encountered.
And I'm afraid that is when it all started to go wrong. Each evening, instead of chilling out after my exertions on the slopes or reading a novel, I plunged into the connected world. I checked my office e-mail, deleting zillions of irrelevant messages, I downloaded editions of two British newspapers each day, and listened to Radio 4 via a streaming radio application. I made video calls home for nothing, using a Skype app.
I was also able to indulge my addiction to social media, updating my Facebook status, tweeting pictures of the mountains, even checking in on FourSquare so regularly that I ended the week as mayor of the hotel where I was staying. On Wednesday evening I downloaded the podcast of the first programme in my series on the Secret History of Social Networking - just to check it was there, you understand.
Even worse, I found a smartphone app that would track my progress across the ski slopes without using up expensive data. I proceeded to annoy the hell out of my fellow skiers - none of whom shared my thirst for connectivity - by continually updating them: "Oooh, we've now skied 41Km, with a total descent of over 8000m."
Late in the week, I began to ask myself whether it would not have been more of a holiday if the internet connection up in the mountains and the mobile phone signal had been cut off. Then I checked my e-mail once more and found something startling and fascinating.
A company called Arbor Networks which monitors internet traffic had sent me a blog post which contained . It illustrated what had happened when the Egyptian authorities effectively cut the country's connection to the internet. Coupled with the shutting down of mobile phone networks, it seemed that millions of people in a country with quite a sophisticated communications culture had now been deprived of the kind of connectivity I was enjoying.
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Already aware - via Twitter - of the unfolding story of civil unrest in Egypt, I now paid even closer attention to what was happening on the streets of Cairo and Suez. Despite the web black-out, it seemed quite a few ingenious Egyptians were still getting the news out.
Arguments about the impact of new media in uprisings like this one were raging all over the blogosphere once more, but it was clear that the Egyptian government believed that the internet posed a real threat to its control of the population.
By the time I got home, the authorities had abandoned their attempts to cut off Egypt from the 21st Century. Egyptians were once again using every means possible to communicate their anger about their rulers to their fellow citizens and to a world now connected to every movement on the streets of Cairo.
So, for me, connectivity in the Alps was a luxury, something which I might have done better to relinquish for a week. But for millions of others, in countries like Egypt, the ability to get instant access to information which could change the shape of their lives is becoming as much of a human right as access to clean water.
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Comment number 1.
At 31st Jan 2011, Derek Lambert wrote:It's also obvious that the Internet shutdown completely backfired on the Egyptian authorities. And how long could it continue wthout bringing much of modern commercial life to a halt?
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Comment number 2.
At 31st Jan 2011, colinB wrote:Sounds like connectivity was not the substantive issue. For many of us the problem is not the availability of connectivity but our amenability/ proclivity to being 'always on.' Sometimes we do need, literally, to switch off, if we wish to get any benefits from relaxation and leisure.
Notwithstanding our personal choice, whether or not to disconnect ourselves, this should never undermine the value of connectivity to those denied the opportunity to communicate and share their difficult circumstances.
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Comment number 3.
At 31st Jan 2011, Bill Gibbon wrote:A good read, as usual. but I *was* a little disappointed that you weren't talking about Victoria Coren's wonderful quiz programme with the same heading..... that's also about connectivity, in a far more challenging way. I hope it doesn't suffer in the forthcoming cull of 91Èȱ¬ websites... /programmes/b00lskhg
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Comment number 4.
At 31st Jan 2011, Green Soap wrote:The ability to get instant access to information which could change the shape of their lives is becoming as much of a human right as access to clean water.
Claptrap. I'm sorry, but access to clean water being compared to no Internet? Unreal.
As for the "social media" uprising, that's proved to be false, considering the protests increased after the internet switch off.
Seems to be only the people with an agenda of promoting Social Media have been pushing that nonsense. Funny that.
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Comment number 5.
At 31st Jan 2011, Hastings wrote:Last year I went camping - as we do most years. We did not take a laptop and the camp did not have wi-fi. I spent 10 days happily unconnected - I even bought a couple of news papers and listened to the radio more.
Actually, this was not unusual, this is what happens every year.
As usual, I sent an email out to my clients explaining that I was away and to keep things simmering till I returned. Once client phoned to ask where I was going. I told them I was going camping. Oh, Lovely! You will be still picking up your emails though? No. Well, you can probably find an internet cafe? No, probably not. How do I get hold of you then? You don't; I will be on holiday.
This client, who is one of my younger clients, was completely mystified. She could not understand how I could be anywhere and not want to be able to connect. I think she thought I was a bit odd. I mean, I wasn't even going to update my Facebook page (not that I ever do anyway!)
When I returned, she did not ask how my holiday had been but rather had I missed the internet. No, I said. And added that the holiday was wonderful and I was now going to enjoy a nice cup of tea.
This year, my client has sent an email round saying she is on Holiday. She has gone to great pains to point out that she will be completely out of contact for the entire two weeks.
Good for her!
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Comment number 6.
At 31st Jan 2011, Oli wrote:I was in the Alps the week before last and, much as I love the connected world, it was a pleasure not to feel wedded to my phone and Facebook etc for a week. The occasional spot of wifi was enough to keep me in the loop as far as the world was concerned, and the free app which required no data to track GPS location and speed was a pleasure to use was a great example of modern smartphone technology - but that was about all that I used my phone for (well, the occasional call excepted).
I really do think that you need to switch off every now and again to really appreciate things.
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Comment number 7.
At 1st Feb 2011, Hastings wrote:I am sure we have lost something with the idea of instant information.
99% of what we seem to think we need to know RIGHT NOW we either don't really need to know till next week and possibly don't need to know at all.
Unless that huge hungry bear is actually chasing you, the fact that bears exists is not so urgent.
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