In less than two weeks I will travel from Malawi to Italy. I am celebrating my birthday, one in which both digits change. It will be my first holiday in 1.5 years. My trip lasts about a month and during this time I hope to get completely offline.
In the past I took pleasure in being disconnected. Ten years ago, when I worked in the Congo, I was offline for an entire year. More recently, I have hiked in the Himalayas for 3 or 4 weeks and had no internet connection. It felt terrific. During those times, my baseline connectedness was lower. It was not hard to sign off. I think this Italy trip, going offline for a month, may be more difficult for me.
In the USA, the Internet and I are constantly connected. In our tiny apartment we have WiFi. The local Internet company is a monopoly and has set up WiFi hotspots all over the city. Consequently, when I am walking down the street, the Internet and I remain connected. My phone pings frequently indicating the arrival of a personal or work email, a text message, or someone contacting me on WhatsApp. Usually, when it pings, I look to see what just arrived.
Here in Malawi, things are different. I have a portable metered WiFi hotspot. I turn it off, temporarily disconnecting myself from the world. When I wake up in the morning, I make coffee and take the steaming cup outside to the khonde to watch the birds in the cool of the day. Only after breakfast do I fire up the WiFi hotspot to see what may lay ahead at work.
Is connectedness a good thing? Many people argue it increases productivity, both personally and at work.
As everyone knows, we are now enrolling for the DON clinical trial. I am the Principal Investigator for this study. Being a PI is a big responsibility. I have a lot of people working with me and am responsible for a great deal of Federal funding. I want to do a good job. Over the last two years, as the trial has inched towards opening, I have become more connected and jumpier. Every time my phone pings I jump at it, worried it might be another regulator emailing to tell me that what I am proposing to do is impossible. Or perhaps the thousand page application I submitted to the regulator was not enough. Perhaps I need to submit another thousand pages in the next two days or the regulatory agency will throw everything out and I will have to start again. I am not exaggerating. This has happened more than once and this has put me in a constant defensive mood. It has made me irritable, sleepless, and unhappy. I have tried to counteract this negativity by exercise, yoga, and bicycling out to Blantyre’s mountains every weekend to hike alone. These things partially balance me, but I remain not in the same place as the person who enjoyed being offline for a year.
Italy is my chance to reset. My mobile phone will not ring or ping there. Jones has a phone that works in Europe. If something critical happens to my family, they will contact him. I am leaving a very competent co-worker in charge of the clinical trial. He will handle anything untoward that may happen.
Is connectedness a good thing? Many people argue it increases productivity, both personally and at work. Perhaps, but I see a lot of people waste a great deal of time on their mobile phones. My plane lands in Rome in less than two weeks. I am wanting and needing to be less productive for awhile.
