tl;dr:

Browsing the internet on a “new” device feels a lot like taking a vacation to a “new” place.

Relationships with personal technology

As many people do, I browse the internet a lot on my personal devices. Things like my phone, and my laptop. Both of these devices know me, and I know them. I’ve got routines. I live with these things. I almost live within these things, sometimes.

Many people see a problem with the time they spend on devices. It takes away time from other tasks, you look like a zombie, and if you’re watching short form video, it’s probably not that good for your attention span.

So, people turn to screen time restrictions, as the solution to this time thief seems to be asking your devices to politely interrupt you when you’ve spent half an hour with your brain mostly turned off, browsing social media, or inevitably, browsing the short form video they’ve added to almost all social media platforms.

To avoid getting sucked into these algorithms, sometimes it’s smarter to avoid getting anywhere near them. So, avoid the algorithms, even the ones that you don’t think are algorithms.

Back to these personal devices.

They’re designed so that they remember everything about you. It’s convenient! You don’t need to know your friend’s phone numbers; they’re all stored. These operating systems record almost everything you do, and use these records to figure out your routines, so they can predict what you’ll do next. Google likes to sell this information. Apple likes to use this information to suggest which apps to open based on patterns. Eg. Every morning at 8am, you open the weather app, so if you open the search bar at 8am, the weather app is suggested first.

Even before you could open Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, there’s algorithms at play. Everything is hauntingly familiar, because these companies want it to be. There isn’t really an escape. It’s all tied to the device.

How do you escape these routines?

The same way you escape routines in life. You take a vacation.

It’s easy to see how taking a week off of work gets you out of your normal routine. Often, you take this time to visit a new place, and you’re able to appreciate this place because it’s new, or at least, it’s something you don’t see too often.

You should do the same with your technological environment.

How to take a digital vacation

How am I supposed to know? I seemingly never escape computers.

All joking aside, it comes naturally if you like to toy around with computers that aren’t tied to you, as you end up getting it connected to the internet, inevitably load up a web browser, and have an afternoon of spare time to yourself.

All it needs to be is a browser that isn’t signed in, and doesn’t have all your creature comforts, like extensions, themes, or bookmarks. You’ll notice that going into incognito mode or creating a new profile ends up doing this job pretty well.

(Slightly irrelevant)
I manage to get my hands on other computers without too much effort. Recently, I’ve repurposed an old Dell SFF (Small form factor) PC to run Ubuntu and act as an Airplay and Spotify Connect target. See a pattern? I’ve found an old Chromebox and an old Chromebook, wiping both of them to a fresh copy of ChromeOS and poking about. (First time that I’ve used a touchscreen laptop! Steve Jobs was right!) I even got an iPad mini, albeit with badly cracked glass.

The actual hardware is irrelevant, as long as I end up browsing the internet without being unduely bothered by the hardware or the speed (or lack thereof).

Much like how one may explore a town that they’ve never been to, these fresh pieces of hardware lend me to explore the internet much differently than I normally do on my personal things, like my phone or my laptop.

The key is that I’m starting with a blank slate.

The friction of logging into social media on not your own device (and the thought of accidentally leaving it logged in for someone else to access) means that you have to start from a google search, or from something that you’re not so-often ushered into when using a familiar piece of tech.

The algorithms are (largely) side-stepped, and the internet becomes something you read, not something that reads into you.

You start exploring.

Usually, it’s a good article that starts off the whole process. A good author (that writes an article for the internet, as opposed to an article that may go into print) attaches links to phrases they use in their articles, and all but the most self-centered of them link out to other websites.

All of a sudden, the one article has branched off somewhere else, and you’re three references deep into something that’s only halfway related to that original article.

Side note: I’m working on an article about this act of “surfing the web”. I have much to say here.

Not unlike a good night out, you’re bouncing from businesses to backyards, and ending up in someone’s kitchen, talking about anything and everything until 2am with a bunch of new acquaintances.

Meeting new people opens doors. If you’re going to stay at home, and you’re going to spend your time on the internet, you might as well take a digital vacation.