Laptopless at work: For health, would you actually do it?

If you’re a guy and you like girls, wouldn’t you like seeing one go topless? Or if you’re a girl lying down on a desert island, wouldn’t you consider making yourself more comfortable? No, I’m not writing about women’s breasts. In turn, I’ll make you feel laptopless.

Anyway, there’s one issue that has worried me over recent times: the number of hours we spend in front of a laptop, not to mention smartphones and other technological devices. By envisioning its harmful consequences to our health and our apparent inertia in dealing with them, I decided to bring the “laptopless” concept in the table.

TECHNOLOGY EVERYTIME, EVERYWHERE

A weekend ago, I went through a mental break where my mind seemed like it was about to blow up. With fever, I could barely open my eyes given the pain spread all over my body. By that time, my only words to technology were simply “go fuck yourself!” My whole week had been something like “I have to finish this text; answer these emails; post on LinkedIn; review this text once again and then start a new one asap”. Jesus, it was too much…

From early morning to 2am, my eyes were being constantly bombed by screens of several sizes and shapes. Given this background, I felt like I really needed to take a break for the sake of my mental health.

Technology is all over the place in our day-to-day lives and, sooner or later, we’ll all pay the prize for this constant tech-based addiction.

When you go to bed, is your smartphone next to you? Probably yes… Before feeling asleep, most of us are scrolling down on Facebook or Instagram feeds just to keep track of what’s going on. Then, as soon as we wake up, we do the same over again. Get to work and there we are: stuck in the chair, switching our job tasks on the laptop to social media on our smartphone a myriad of times per day.

According to a study conducted by Silentnight,

“Many adults now spend more hours of the day using laptops and phones than they do asleep.”

In reality, people spend an average of 8 hours 21 minutes sleeping a day — but spend an average of 8 hours 41 minutes on media devices. To make things worse, we also spend more time each morning on the internet than having breakfast or getting ourselves ready to go to work…

Are we all aware of how serious this thing is? We live in a society where technology has totally dominated our course of action, personal and professionally wise. The thing is that this won’t stop and that’s kind of scary…

LAPTOPLESS JOBS: LEARNINGS FROM THE PAST

However true it may be, laptops are an essential tool in almost any job. Without them, there was no way you could accomplish your tasks at work or have access to my storytelling portfolio. We all need them. Period. Nevertheless, when you see people having lunch with both the laptop and the smartphone next to them, something can’t be right.

Nowadays, we get easily distracted, losing the focus before what’s happening around us, especially in a working context. Therefore, we fail to achieve our goals and duties, jeopardizing our overall performance. Worse than that, we start to become anxious, tired, cranky and even in a state of deep sadness and depression. No, I don’t think I’m exaggerating!

We’ve reached the point as a society where the question to raise is not whether we have a tech addiction but how can we solve it.

Following this idea, I’m happy to introduce you to “laptopless”: the art of letting the laptop go. In other words, the conscious decision to free yourself from this device.

If one thinks upon this issue, there’s a group of people whom we can call “ early adopters” as far as this tech detox is concerned. Waiters, farmers, cleaning ladies, construction workers, hairdressers, postmen… These and other laptopless jobs have always been perceived as downscale by the majority of us. In fact, you associate them with precariousness and low levels of education, which have prevented these people from reaching a better quality of life.

Funnily enough, they might be the ones claiming that trophy around these days.

Of course, their lives are far away from being a fairy tale but, at the end of the day, it’s not as bad as it seems. Here are some reasons why:

They rarely resort to gadgets or devices in the course of their work; plus the fact that they move their body quite actively right? On top of that, they still get the chance to interact with people about non-work related topics and are privileged to see the outcome of their work in an immediate way.

Back in the days when I worked as a waiter, I remember a day where I served a lady a cappuccino. As soon as I placed the cup on her table, she showed me a big smile and her eyes became amazingly shinny: “wow so beautiful!” The moment she paid the check, I’ll never forget her words: “everything was perfect! So calm and chill… It feels so good when the staff finds time to look you in the eye.” That literally made my day.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF: BECAUSE THERE’S ONLY ONE YOU

Contrary to us, the well-educated ones, I really believe those who do laptopless are on the right track healthwise. Now you might be telling me: are they financially stable? I’m sure not but neither us! In our case, the situation is even more dramatic because we (and our parents) invested so much money in our studies… I guess there are way more important things to bear in mind for us to feel good, now and in the future.

Altogether, it’s all about the choices you make and the balance you try to get from your actions.

Giving technology a break is a “must do” so as to ensure we keep ourselves productive, happy and healthy. To me, health is the most precious thing we can have so better take care of ourselves properly.

At work or leisure, let’s get laptopless more often. Our eyes will certainly enjoy this view to the fullest.