The 2002 Experiment

The Scientific Method

Step 1: Observation

We got rid of our Alexas a few months ago. We bought our first little puck-shaped speaker in 2017 and slowly added to their number. Eventually, there was one in each bedroom and one in the living room.  We were not very efficient or exciting Alexa users, mostly using them for kitchen timers, alarms, and reminders. Occasionally we’d use them for music. We don’t pay for music subscriptions so everything we were listening too was rife with ads and we were at the algorithm’s mercy. I’d tell Alexa to play Billy Joel and she would find a deep cut so deep that even Billy Joel didn’t remember that he’d sung it. We had started to dip our toe into the smart house technology and we had a few lamps that we could turn on using voice commands.

Over the years, the Alexa technology got worse. It started trying to sell us something every time we interacted with it.  I got nervous about letting an evil mega-corporation listen in on conversations in every room of my house, just so I could have a hands-free kitchen timer. Was the convenience the Alexa offered worth the price of privacy?  

Nope. So, we decided to get rid of them. We found simple solutions to all of the problems Alexa was solving. We bought a good kitchen timer. I got a little travel alarm clock that sits on my bedside table. We bought some plugs with wireless switches so we can turn lights on and off.

We solved the music issue with a CD player. If I want to listen to music, I have to make a conscious effort to walk over to the boxy CD player. I have to decide what, exactly, I want to listen to from our collection of 30 CDs. My options are limited, yes, but I’m picking from our all-time greats. For the past few weeks, we’ve kept The Best of Simon and Garfunkel on repeat. Are there particular songs that I don’t love? Yes, but it’s not worth it to me to find the remote or walk over and hit the next button. So, I go with vibes instead and I roll with the songs I don’t like.

There was an adjustment period for all of this, but the house is actually quite lovely. Quieter. Slower. Calmer.

Backtracking on our Alexa journey has me wondering if all this technology has made my life better or worse. What would my life look like if technological progress hadn’t happened as quickly as it did? I mean, I was born into a pre-DVD world—one where my dad captured my first moments on a giant, boxy camcorder that recorded those memories on a VHS tape. We didn’t have a computer at home until I was 5. I used dial-up internet until I was well into high school. Hell. I didn’t get my first smartphone until 2015. Has it really only been eleven years?

This inquiry could be sociological, but this particular experiment isn’t global. It’s personal.   

Has technology made my life better or worse?

Step 2: Hypothesis

Technology has made some things easier, but it has also had more insidious effects on my life.

Step 3: Experiment

To test my hypothesis, as much as I can, I’m walking all of my technology back to 2002 for the entire month of August. In 2002, I was a newly-licensed driver with a Nokia cell phone the size of my palm. I could call and text, but the texts were limited and if I went over my limit, they cost extra.

We had a desktop computer in my parents’ bedroom with dial-up internet. We got online, but it was not to browse. It was for a specific purpose and, once that purpose was met, we got off. We didn’t need the internet at our fingertips. If I was out with friends at dinner and someone asked, “When did The Lion King come out?” we didn’t have a way to answer that in the moment. We’d have to wait until we got home to look it up or, more likely, we forgot about the question and moved on with our lives. Did online recipes, online shopping, and DIY sites exist somewhere on the internet? Probably, but my family didn’t use the internet in that way. We were still looking things up in books. If I want to make a new recipe, I’m going to have to dig through my recipe box or schlep up to the library and hope that I can find a book that has it. The internet was a tool but it was not the be-all end-all. It was not located at the center of our lives.

So, here are the rules for this month that I’ve come up with so far.

1. Phone is for texting and calling only. No emails. No apps. No Bluetooth.
2. No social media. Even Myspace didn’t launch until 2003.
3. No streaming services. No streaming anything. Youtube launched in 2005.
4. No podcasts.
5. Internet usage will be limited to 2002 rules. My laptop will be parked at my desk and I can only get online there for specific purposes and then I get off. If it can be solved by looking something up in a book, then I’ll try that first.

It’s an interesting project, right? I’m a little excited, a little nervous. I’m sure I’ll discover many unexpected nuggets of wisdom as I try to disentangle myself from the world wide web for a month.

Join me! I’ll be blogging about it here. If you don’t want to miss a post, you can always subscribe to my blog (look in the top right corner). I think I’ve also figured out a way to automatically share blog posts on my welderbeth facebook page and my newly-minted public-facing Instagram page. You can follow along there too (but you’ll be at that party on your own, my friends).

I start at midnight tonight.

Here

            we

                        gooooooo!