From messaging to location, calling, and emails, we live in a digital age majorly dependent on the mobile phone and the internet. For many, it has become so imperative that losing sight of their phones for a few minutes results in anxiety and stress. On the contrary, Yang Hao, a PhD candidate at a British university, researching “Effects of Digitisation on People’s Lives” decided to ditch his phone after nearly 5 months. Yang Hao took up a 134-day expedition through China where he covered 24 provinces and regions without his phone or laptop.
Yang describes himself as an “ancient man who has time-travelled to the modern day”. He left his house in November and went around China without a phone or laptop, carrying only two cameras that could not be connected to the internet. As per Yang, the internet is more than often a distraction, and wastes time.
Speaking with the South China Morning Post, Yang said, “I feel that the mobile phone is like a digital organ for us. We cannot do many things without one. So I’d wanted to explore what happens if we have no internet access at all. What’s the experience like, say, for a period of several months?”.
Further, Yang added that people he met during his journey were “Shocked” to learn that he was not carrying a phone. Many had doubts if he was doing something illegal, some asked whether he was on a mission, and nearly all found his experiment intriguing.
He confessed that giving up his phone for 5 months in a country like China where digitisation and technological development are advancing the quickest globally was a bold step. While having no phone meant quality time for Yang, it came with its own set of challenges. He was unable to use ride-hailing services to get a taxi, make an advance hotel reservation, or immediately consult maps as he lost the way. Yang discovered that the majority of stores in China had no card-swiping machines which forced him to trek to places in search of an ATM in order to obtain cash.
In the future, Yang plans to compile a book of the articles he wrote during his journey and produce a documentary with the videos he shot.
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