Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past, Penguin Books invited readers to take “a vacation to 1983” by going offline for one weekend in August. No internet, no mobile phones, no social feeds. It was a clever campaign for Michael Harris’s The End of Absence, a book about what we lose in a world of constant connection.
Ironically, evidence of this promotional campaign has all but vanished from the internet – there is an article in The Irish Times, a few random blog posts, and the ghost of an official webpage. What’s important, however, is that there’s an idea worth focusing on. With the month swiftly approaching, it may be time to slow down and revive Analogue August.
According to Michael Harris, constant connection has deprived us of the “absence” of the book’s title. Our quiet moments, our boredom, even our solitude have vanished – or, rather, been filled – with the endless stream of email, messages, social media and audio/video playlists. We are experiencing “the loss of lack”, the loss of those empty moments that may be the wellspring of our intelligence, creativity and identity.
Penguin’s publicity campaign promised a free Penguin Classic in exchange for two things: the purchase of The End of Absence and a pledge to undertake a fully analogue weekend in August. It was a thing, until it wasn’t.
In the decade-plus since the book was published, perhaps trendier terms have taken over: digital detox, a digital sabbatical, or our current favourite, digital fasting. Meanwhile, our lives are further enmeshed with our phones: more than ever before, it’s how we pay, travel, eat, listen, read, remember, work, navigate, exercise and sleep.
But the zeitgeist isn’t a one-way street, as shown by this year’s neo-Ludd revival. Dating back to an Industrial Age workers’ movement, Luddism is being reclaimed by those urging principled resistance not to all technology, but to the human costs that can come with technologies like AI. In hyper-connected New York City, Neo-Luddites recently convened for an analogue Summer of Ludd.
That was early July, and it was in New York. The good news is we can all do Analogue August wherever we are. But how?
Penguin’s specifics are lost to time, but it’s enough to take a weekend off screens – or if you’re already on holiday, any two days. Tell people before, if you need to. You can pin a message, or leave an autoresponder. But outside your closest circle of friends and family, a two-day pause may go virtually unnoticed – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Then, just power down. Stow your phone, put away your laptop, turn off the TV and hang up your headphones. You may find it takes at least a day for first your hand, then your brain, to stop reflexively reaching for a device.
But you might find you enjoy its absence. With your mind and hands free, you may rediscover the many analogue pleasures – along with a little boredom, too – that you’ve been missing.