3 Things I Learnt From #24HoursNoSocialMedia

It started out innocently enough. From a tweet posted by Terri Nakamura, I learnt about @jakek's experiment on going a year without 'smartphone distraction'. I tweeted about how tough it'd be to go without. I am constantly online, reading and sharing info on mobile technology. It was difficult to imagine not having access to 'infinity apps' like Twitter and Facebook. It went like this...

My Year with a Distraction-Free iPhone (and How to Start Your Own Experiment) http://t.co/7gw9asO0OO pic.twitter.com/FmePCxCmHf
— Terri Nakamura (@terrinakamura) September 3, 2014

Dunno if I'm brave enough. Maybe I'll start with the 24 hr test. cc: @terrinakamura "My year with a distraction-free iPhonehttp://b…
— Adrian Lee (@AdrianLeeSA) September 3, 2014

At 0000 hr on Monday, 8th Sept 2014; I started my 24 hours experiment. Some rules for the experiment: I can use voice calls, SMS and IM apps on my phone. Do not use 'infinity' apps. Email and web use would be restricted strictly to work-related purposes and on desktop only. No social media app use at all. Not even looking at notifications which I left active on purpose.

0000 - 0459 hr: Sleeping. Didn't touch my phone.   

0500 hr: Phone alarm goes off. I nearly messed it up, as the first thing I normally do is check the Twitter/Facebook notifications that came through in the night from my Asia contacts. It took a conscious effort to not click on the notifications. I pressed 'Clear All' on the notifications bar. This feels strange. 

0515 - 0630 hr: Getting ready for the day, this is where I normally go to my Feedly page with a coffee and go through interesting news in the tech world. As I read, I share and post on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/G+/AppNet via the Buffer app. Reading quickly, I'd normally post a dozen articles before getting ready for work. Again, I almost slip up and nearly clicked 'Share Now' 2 or 3 times. My thumb was antsy. I got info that I can't share? I saved the articles instead for later. 

0730 - 0800 hr: Commute to work. I'm lucky enough to have a personal driver in Ghana. My daily ritual while in the car is to browse Twitter for breaking news, retweeting 2-3 articles in 30 minutes. Today, I looked out the window and enjoyed the music on the car stereo instead. I texted my friends in Singapore. My Galaxy S5 was feeling a little underutilized.

0800 - 1300 hr: In the office. My computer boots up with Chrome as my company uses Google Enterprise for work. I had to close the open tabs for Twitter and Facebook (more notifications, what's going on in the world?). My phone hooks up to the company WiFi, and triggers it on silent mode from the IFTTT app. Blinking social media notifications beckon at me. I look away resolutely. I complete a customer proposal, respond to several business enquiries by phone and email, schedule meetings for the rest of the week. My hands were flying over the computer keyboard. Didn't have time to look at my phone. 

1300 - 1330 hr: Lunchtime, I get a packed lunch from home. This is usually the time I sit in the office canteen, with sandwich in hand and smartphone in the other to check what's happening with my Facebook crowd. Today, I plug in my headphones and listen to my music. I concentrate on my sandwich. It is a good sandwich. Nice sandwich. I text my wife to tell her. I wonder what's happening to my friends who were relocating, they were posting FB updates on their move. I search out articles on big data and analytics to pass the time. 

1400 - 1409 hr: A customer was supposed to meet us at the office. He's running late. As I sat waiting in the empty meeting room, I unlock my phone and click on the Twitter ap.... damn, I caught myself in time. Phew! I stick my phone in my pocket. 

1410 - 1515 hr: Customer arrives, we have our meeting with one of my colleagues. Maybe because I was paying a lot more attention to everyone. I noticed my customer's eyes glancing at his iPhone pretty often. Using the clock on my computer, I timed him. On average, my customer glances at his phone once every 50 seconds or a minute. Our meeting lasted an hour and a bit, so my customer probably looked at his idle phone close to a dozen times. I wonder if my customer has ADHD. I mentally correct myself because I do that too. I unlocked my phone to see more notifications. Facebook just doesn't quit. I clicked 'Clear All'.     

1515 - 1830 hr: As the day progressed, I kept at my work. It was a productive afternoon as I cleared up my 'To-Do' list. Mondays are normally the busiest as we create closing reports for the previous work week. I normally take Tweet breaks. Not today. Without the distractions, I was done with the reports by about 1700 hr. A new record. From the corner of my eye, i could see my phone's notification LED winking merrily at me. I click 'Clear All' again. 

1830 - 1905 hr: End of the day. I jumped into the car and as my driver pulls away, I texted my wife to let her know I was headed back. This is also the time I catch up with the Twitter news from the North American time zone. I don't do that. Nosily, I looked in on the other drivers in the peak hour chaos. In the 35-minute ride and playing backseat cop, I catch seven different drivers either calling, texting or peering into their phones in traffic. Not cool. 

1905 - 1930 hr: Dinner is being prepared. As I sit on our patio with the dogs, I am tempted to check my phone. Maybe I can look at something else? I checked the onboard pedometer instead, it recorded about 3000 steps today from walking around the office. I poured myself a nice whiskey. I shared a bit with my bulldog. She seems to like it. Social media seemed a distant memory.

1930 - 2230 hr: My wife and I chatted over dinner. I tell her about my 24-hour-no-social-media experiment. She asked why I was doing it. I reply no reason but why are we on social media? We've not had TV for the past 2 years because we thought regular TV programming was pathetic. I put up a movie on screen and we watch that. It's a romantic comedy and my wife's a huge fan. She's on Facebook and Pinterest as well. I glance over at her phone, catching glimpses of her busy reposting articles, googling the cute lead actor in the movie. I actually enjoy the movie.

2300 - 0032 hr: The movie ends and my wife heads upstairs to sleep, I powered up the Playstation. I had to seek out ZombieKilla99 on 'Battlefield 3'. It was his night to get fragged. He annihilates me instead over four merciless deathmatch rounds. Grumbling, I go up to bed. As I plugged in my phone to charge overnight, I saw the notifications LED blinking merrily. I'm too tired. No social media for me tonight. I sleep very soundly.

So what did I learn?

1. I can do without social media distractions for 24 hours. I didn't get a pathological urge to check what's happening every 50 seconds. As long as I as I kept myself busy and engaged. I jotted the notes for this story as it happened throughout the day. I normally reserve my blogging for the weekends. I'd say I'd distracted myself in other ways? 
2. It wasn't easy. Breaking bad online behavior that's so entrenched, I nearly slipped a couple of times and succumbed to checking my social media feeds. I had to consciously restrain myself from doing so multiple times within 24 hours. In fact, it felt like the default unconscious action, for when I had some 'down' time. 
3. It wasn't difficult either. I'm not a social media manager and my livelihood doesn't depend on me being connected all the time, that's why it wasn't as tough as I thought. No, there's no drama, no lasting psychological effects. I was still connected albeit without a continuous, neverending stream of digital chatter. I can control what I see. That was a gratifying discovery.   

Once I gone past the first few hours, it was quite easy not be distracted by social media. I opened my eyes to really observe and experience everything around me. So, thanks to Terri for the article, it was a refreshing 24 hour break. I might go for a week the next time. 

To others like me, please go ahead and try out a #24HoursNoSocialMedia experiment. Let me know how your day goes when you emerge on the other side. :)

   

Five Reasons Why This Galaxy Gear 2 Is Going To Be Put Down

The Gear 2 psychoanalyzes itself.

Disclosure: I was a former employee in charge of the Samsung Apps Store. And in an earlier post, I did write about how enthused I am by the advent of wearables. I guess I Gear-ed myself for a Galaxy of hurt.

53 days, 8 hours and counting. This is the current lifespan for the Samsung Gear 2 that sits on my wrist. I remembered my initial excitement. As head of product marketing, I had access to some of the latest mobile technology available in the market. Given an opportunity to test-drive wearable technology, I chose a smartwatch over Glass (which I could get shipped over by a developer friend in the US). 

At that point, Samsung was marketing its Galaxy S5 heavily. In the bundle that was purchased, surprise, surprise; a Samsung Gear 2 was also offered at a heavily discounted rate. I'm Asian and thrifty. I took the leap. 

And that was where I got stuck in low Gear.

Ive Got Design
In the glitzy world of advertising, everything is edited to perfection. Maybe I was out of consumer marketing for too long, I took one glance at how Samsung marketed the Galaxy Gear 2. Sleek, brushed satin finish steel on the bezel, pictured next to the Galaxy S5 flagship. It didn't take much. 

I am not Jony Ive so I was easily sold on the Galaxy Gear 2 (and its discounted price) design. I think the lead designer in Korea was told - design something that causes zero emotional reaction. The designer succeeded. When I removed the new Gear 2 from its very beige packaging box; I nearly asphyxiated from holding my breath. As I rotated it under a bright lamp, the ascetic lines of the Gear gave me chills down my spine and not in a good way. Wow, it isn't.  

Buyer's remorse weighing heavily on me, I started digging more into the smartwatch space afterwards. What I found astounded me; the conceptual designs, Moto 360, Pebble, and a whole plethora of choices waiting in the wings. Most of them looked fantastic and came in a huge array of personalization choices. What's worse, the innocuous-looking Galaxy Gear 2 was sported on the wrists of so many. Yes, the exact same color choice (black wristband and silver) was also the de facto choice for every infrequent geek wanting a smartwatch. Other fancy colored variants for the Gear are hard to find in Accra. (No, Ghana is not high on Moto or Pebble's priority list so you can't get one here.) 

Not only did the big-bad-black-boring-bland block bug me, it appeared everywhere I looked. My frivolous side kicked in. I wasn't the only one. Do not tell me that I can customize the home screen on the Gear 2. I know how to do that. But the Gear screen stays adamantly off when idle, so the external design of the smartwatch is critical. Samsung, if you loved it, you woulda put da bling on it.       

Wall-hugging Life Form
Gripes about the proprietary and very unnecessary charger cradle aside, the battery life of the Gear 2 is crazily unpredictable. To put it simply, the life of the Gear 2 was as unpredictable as trying to get lucky by going out on a date with your psycho ex - it might take longer, it might take a short while but at the end of the day, you never know what you're going to get.

With notifications for various apps (some IM, calendar alerts, social media, email, etc) switched on, I can rarely get more than 14 hours of operating life from the Gear 2. I unplug it at 6 am every morning. The big bad block will gleefully beep that it is in need of juice (varies between 4-20% reserve) by about 10 pm every night. On the Gear site, it proudly states 2-3 days life on typical usage. Well, I think I'm a typical user and I've not seen anything better than 14 hours at a push. I do not want to be bothered with a wearable that needs to be charged every night. I already need to charge my Galaxy S5, why do I need to waste another socket point to charge the Gear every night? Oh, for the love of wireless charging...

Hey, here's an idea, why doesn't Samsung make a charger that can charge TWO devices at once? Proprietary charger cradle, my S5. The Gear is so high-maintenance, if I ignored it for a full day, it would probably sulk and die of natural causes.      

Manager, Schmanager
Most peripherals would need drivers and software to carry out its functions. I didn't expect any different for the Gear. On first setup with Gear Manager, Samsung's answer to smartwatch 'management', it was clear why Samsung should not venture into the app space. As if to match the Gear in its bleh-ness, the Gear Manager app looks like the below.

Pic was taken after I disconnected the Gear 2.

Basic app design principles, Suwon. On a big smartphone screen, I do NOT want to scroll down a list a la Web 1.0. I want well-designed icons cleverly located together in one (quite) huge screen for me to click on. And no, unlike all its other TouchWiz apps, Gear Manager does not allow you to select another view. If new app designers can utilize the real estate on-screen to the max, there shouldn't be a reason why Samsung couldn't do the same. The carnage carries on if you select 'Notifications' where the mind-boggling long list of all my apps is shown. Can anyone say, Navigation Drawers? You scrolllllllllllllll to check the apps you need. What happened to 'Air view' the feature that you have natively in the Galaxy S5?

Please refresh yourself here with a lesson from Android.

Apps, What Apps?
It might surprise some that you can download apps for your Gear. It's surprising because it's hidden under the "Samsung Gear Apps" option, which is also hidden below the fold of the screen earlier. When you do decide to venture deeper into the labyrinth, it's quickly evident that a similar lack of finesse went into the Samsung Gear apps store. 

To address the team, it's a pretty good cross-section of apps. There are Gear-specific apps, no doubt collected from the big bounty Tizen app challenge. Personally, these challenges are great for bulking up the number of apps, not the quality. What this store had in terms of breadth of apps, it made up for with lack of depth. The Gear store looks the same as the current Galaxy Store for the regular smartphone apps. Wait, it IS the same store. When I click on one I'd like to download, I'm greeted by empty screens so there is no way to check if you like an app before downloading. Presumably this is a legacy from the old Galaxy store which required specifically-sized images. Or did someone forget to upload them?

I have the Endomondo Sports Tracker app that I love for my cycling and walking activities. I paid for the Doubletwist music player and synchronization app. No prizes for guessing if either were available for Samsung Gear. No prize at all.

(s)UX So Bad
User Experience (UX) is a constellation of various factors: visual design, hardware build quality, flow, ease of use, mechanics, etc; that all contribute to the positive emotions of the user towards the product. Beside learning a new form of navigation (swipe down to 'close' screens) versus the 'Back' button of my essentially Android phone; the Gear 2 has served no further function that being a secondary notifications display when my phone's in my pocket or jacket.

With the lack of Gear-phone integration, I still pitifully have to reach for my Galaxy S5, unlock it and view it in the full app. The end game is that I have now switched off all notifications on the Gear. It serves as a watch (that I need to wake up by flicking my wrist several times, sometimes resembling a Parkinson's sufferer). Retard, accelerometer. Its other semi-useful purpose is to act as my pedometer which syncs to S-Health. (S Health, there wasn't another name to choose?) It's Health for, well...you can finish the rest.

A US survey stated more than 1/3 of wearable device owners stop using them in six months. I've given the Gear 2 close to two whole grim months of daily use. I don't think I can wait any longer...for the apps to come...for the battery life to be fixed in a firmware upgrade. At the end of this week and a full 60-days later, this Galaxy Gear 2 will be put down.

Somehow, I don't think I'd miss it too much.

15 Surefire Signs That You're A Geek

In the proliferation of 'top' lists that seem to be invading Facebook, Twitter; here's another one to determine just how much of a geek you are. There are some dead giveaways on how to identify a geek. It'll be so useful in the Zombie Apocalypse when the geeks will inherit everything.

 Don't hate me for it. Just sit back. Scroll down...and revel in the Geekdom.

(Readers' note: 1-4 signs, you merely like technology. 5-8 signs, you probably work in a tech-related environment. More than 9 signs, you're a full-blown, card-carrying tech geek.)

#15 - You've read every available biography of Steve Jobs and Linus Torvalds. Twice.
#14 - You haven't paid for a single music album since 2005.
#13 - Your desk monitor is set up in portrait orientation.
#12 - You don't just leech. You seed.
#11 - Mention "open source" and your Pavlovian response is to say "the best".
#10 - You can recite more than twenty different software or OS release dates. But you can't remember your mother's birthday.
#9 - Glasses aren't a fashion accessory. They help you code in dim lighting conditions.
#8 - Everyone wants your advice on which phone, laptop, home theatre, TV, tablet, (insert electronic device) to buy next. And where to buy it cheap.
#7 - Your work attire consists of sneakers, jeans and a t-shirt. And you secretly feel that's too formal.
#6 -  You use terms like 'XML, Python, Hadoop, Linux, JSON, cache, msconfig, APIs, SDKs, GitHub, Apache, HTML, staging, production, servers.' Daily. Without blinking.
#5 -  Internet connectivity is a human right. You do not patronise a restaurant or cafe that doesn't have a WiFi hotspot.
#4 - You have sent your CV to Microsoft, Google, Intel, Oracle or VMware at least once in the past year.
#3 - Talking to your friends, you are constantly the one that says,"There's an app for that."
#2 - No more phone calls for you. That's too 2013. They can reach you via messenger, email or video calls.   

And the most important sign that you're a geek...

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#1 - You checked your phone more than 4 times since you started reading this. Admit it.