Let's De-Tech A Bit

It is being said in some trend-sniffing quarters that this is a year in which cutting-edge people may attempt to go without so much technology for some of the time. To 'de-tech' their lives a little. Being billed as 'de-techers', such people - weary in their eyeballs, or having just received an outrageous credit-card bill, or finding themselves momentarily intrigued by face-to-face conversation - will begin to 'manage their relationship with gadgetry' in a slightly firmer manner. Perhaps switching off their laptop while eating. And, before too long, even going without any technology for a brief part of the evening.

Already there are confirmed reports of at least seven people in the north London area leaving their Blackberries behind while going out on dates, of a married couple in Derbyshire hanging a sheet over the HDTV screen in their bedroom for almost a week (although possibly because the bedroom was being decorated) and of a mother in Chislehurst not topping up her children's T-Mobiles until the weekend because her offspring wouldn't help load the dishwasher despite being asked repeatedly. In Wolverhampton, a man running a media course left his iPhone at a friend's house and didn't go back for it for 36 hours.

By the time trend-sniffers say the de-teching trend is expected to really take hold, in 2011, large numbers of people will need to be showing the resolve to take regular 'data sabbaths' as part of 'de-tech diet plans' so as not to be completely spellbound all day and night by the touch-sensitive screens on their walls. On which they could so enjoyably be 'bringing up' and 'dragging' things around in the manner of a weather girl, Pentagon-briefing major, musical conductor, dervish and starship helmsman all rolled into one.

By John Hind