Lately I’ve been coming across a lot of op eds, videos, and blogs devoted to the subject of slowing down, unplugging, and giving in to the technology free world we used to know (well, sort of…I guess I never really knew a technology free world being part of the born digital generation and all). All sorts of people are saying we need to slow down, unplug, “live in now mannnn”(you know…waynes world- bad attempt at a joke). So, my problem is, slowing down, turning off, unplugging, whatever you want to call it, I don’t know if these people giving advice are really doing it. Maybe they did it once to be able to write their op ed or blog about it, but do they really take that one full day a week to turn off all technology?

Either way, this speech that Carl Honore gave at Pop!Tech about this very subject was probably one of the most insightful, interesting, and educated arguments someones given to argue the idea of slowing down and uplugging. He gave some great examples of where it’s happening in the workplace, which I thought was really interesting, and also gave some great advice as to how to make this a reality, and not something you just talk about doing (exactly what I was saying above). Instead of saying…”dude go natural for a day or week or whatever…just unplug” he says things like…take a little bit of time at work to get away from media and technology bombardments and slip into your creative space. I thought this speech was great, if you have some time give it a watch, or a skim through…at the very minimum he is a great public speaker.

So, I was planning on doing a post on the Microsoft Zune, but now I’m just doing a quick post on how PopularMechanics: http://www.popularmechanics.com already beat me to it in their amazing Top 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007 post: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4236755.html?page=1

Although it only falls in at number 8, which doesn’t really show just how dumb of a move it was for Microsoft to think they could compete with the iPod, this little blurb is worth reading. Laugh away people; it’s dumb…real dumb. While you’re there, take a look at the entire list. It pretty much sums up advances in technology that were either A. not advances at all B. created for the extremely lazy population that probably doesn’t have the money to buy this stuff because they are so lazy or C. just plain ridiculous. It’s funny. Great post PopularMechanics!