Tech Abstinence in a Wild Place: 7 Benefits
One of my jobs is managing a rainforest preserve in Ecuador. In the middle of this forest is a research station, although it’s really more like a homestead. It’s totally off the grid — there is no Wi-Fi or cell signal. We have a phone hooked up to an old satellite antenna but it usually doesn’t work. At night our primary source of illumination is candlelight.
On average I spend about ten days per month in this forest. I do it partially because it’s my job but mostly because I like being here. One of the (many) benefits of this assignment is the fact that every time I come here, I am forced to disconnect from the internet, phone, computer, and basically from modern civilization.
We’ve been doing this for twelve years. Tech abstinence was initially not our objective, it was simply the reality of the situation. It’s a bamboo house built by hand, isolated in the middle of the lush coastal mountains and surrounded by 1,600 acres of wilderness. Even the road access is tricky — anything heavy from the outside world has to be carried on the back of a mule.
Thus for a chunk of most months for over a decade, I have submitted to the conditions of Tech Abstinence…
