I woke up in the future

I had a very interesting dream recently and wanted to share it with you…

I was driving to visit a friend, when suddenly my car fell off the road and I woke up .. in the future. I didn’t realise at first. I got out of the car and started searching for people around to lend me a phone, so I could call my friend. No one on the roadside or a nearby bus stop had any phones. They didn’t even know what mobiles are. So I decided to take a bus back to the city. Further along the road, I could see a strange sight. It was a field, covered with little white tents, small, to fit just one person and there were smartly dressed people (city boys and gals) sitting individually inside those tents with their smartphones, tablets and other devices. Anyways, my bus arrived and I got on, again looking for someone with a phone. However, instead of the usual sight of people staring at their mobiles, listening to music or texting, I could see people talking to each other, reading newspapers and books. No mobile phone in sight. Finally when I got to the city, I got hold of my friend who explained everything to me. We were in the future, not so distant, maybe 50 years away. People worked less, as they used technology to automate many things, and only in jobs they actually enjoyed. They had more time to relax, enjoy life, spend time with other people and outdoors, within the nature. They only used mobile phones for work and then straight after, they’d unplugged. The strange field outside the city, was  a ‘digital detox camp’, built to separate the ‘addicts’ from the rest of people.  The camp managers were locking up the people in the tents with their devices until they had enough of them. Also, there was no need for mobile devices in life outside of work, because the cities and homes were already smart and connected.. 

I woke up relieved that the vision of ‘my future’ isn’t one of a sci-fi movies. And I don’t think we’re too far from this sort of vision. Our lives have become filled with devices, gadgets, we’re ‘always on’. But how much data, information, email, social messages are too much? I think we’re close to the breaking point. I got to the point that on a one single phone I have 8 applications that I communicate on. If I see a message and don’t respond to it immediately, I then don’t remember which app the message came on and end up checking all 8 one by one. By the time I get to the 3rd one, I get distracted and lose track of what I was looking on. Technology is great if it makes our lives easier, but it is overcomplicating it most of these days. We’d be much more relaxed without mobile phones and ‘forced’  to talk to each other.

Face the Future

Some countries are already experimenting with shorter working hours. Nordics are testing 6 hour working days and tend to have quite long summer breaks. Yet, they are still being considered as one of the most innovative and productive countries in the world.

And finally, ‘digital detox’ breaks have become so popular that people actually pay to have their mobile phones removed and locked away for few days. I do this most weekends. If you haven’t made plans with me ahead, chances are you won’t hear back from me over the weekend. No one suffered from this move, and I actually have much more fun fully immersing myself in what I chose to do, or really focus on people I chose to spend time with.

 

How do you like this version of ‘the future’ from my dream? I’m keen to hear your thoughts either here or on social media!

 

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Photo credits: http://www.segura-inc.com/portfolio/387/neocon_24