Messenger published an article on August 21, 2015, with the
headline: ‘Sophie Perri: Why I’ve gone cold turkey – and given up technology.’
What does ‘cold turkey’ mean?
Sophie Perri is a
journalist. In the article she tells her editor that she has an eye twitch. The
editor’s response was that Sophie stared at screens too much and suggested that
she should ‘go on a digital detox.’ Digital detox is when a person stays away
from technology, such as smartphones, iPads, tablets, laptops, computers, and
even television, for a period of time. Detox aims to reduce the effects of
toxification – in other words, it’s a cleansing process. Perri mentions digital
detoxification camps in America and the United Kingdom specializing in helping
people to ‘unplug’ from obsessive use of technology and refresh the body and
mind. Perri is not aiming to attend a detox camp.
So what do cold turkeys
have to do with technology detoxification? Cold turkey is a free productivity
program that people can use to temporarily block themselves from popular social
media sites, addictive websites, and games, so that they can digitally detox.
Cold turkey, according
to Wikipedia, is ‘the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the
resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process
through reduction over time or by using replacement medication.’ It says that
sudden withdrawal from drugs – and addictive substances – can be dangerous,
leading to potential seizures and fits. Wikipedia gives some suggested
explanations for the origin of the phrase, although they aren’t particularly
helpful, mainly referring to cold turkey (i.e. cooked turkey left to go cold) eaten
‘suddenly or without preparation.’
Let’s see if Perri
stops abruptly from all use of her technology or whether she gradually reduces
her use, and whether she prepares herself first for the detox or not. And let’s
see if she describes any ‘unpleasant’ experiences.
In the article, Perri
explains technology addiction in which heavy users that withdraw from
technology experience a constant state of panic for fear of ‘missing out’ on
phone calls, news, sales, work information, gossip, and connections with
people. She admits that she checks her phone ‘five times in 10 minutes,
especially at night.’ Her mission is to ‘go from Monday to Friday without using
my phone, iPad and all forms of social media.’ She would continue to use her
computer because she still had to do her journalist work.
On her first day of
digital detox she experiences anxiety when her phone rings but she is not
allowed to answer it. On the second day she admits to cheating when she checks
Twitter, Instagram and text notifications. By Saturday she hasn’t cheated all
that much and has mainly avoided checking and answering her phone and text
messages. She has had no major anxiety attacks or cold sweats or other adverse
reactions to going without the use of technology. What it has done is this: it
‘helped me recognise my bad habits.’ And she now has a twitch-free eye.
Scorecard for the Messenger headline is 40%. Perri didn’t
go ‘cold turkey’ 0 instead, she tried to
go cold turkey, and failed. She didn’t ‘prepare’ for her withdrawal beforehand and
she cheated a bit and returned to her technological devices. Nor did she go
cold turkey on all of her digital devices, such as her computer and television.
She still had her phone turned on; so she saw her missed calls and text
messages, but did not answer them. That isn’t ‘cold turkey’ – that’s warm
turkey.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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