Friday, July 13th, 2012
Zoe Paknad, Program Mgr
It is Thursday evening, and I am coming to the last 24 hour stretch of my time on the Wi-Fi diet. Now that my time using only cellular data is coming to an end, I thought I’d use today’s blog post to think back on the things I learned from my experience.
My biggest aid throughout the diet was absolutely the iPass Open Mobile client’s Usage Meter feature. I’m familiar with the Usage Meter due to my work at iPass and have always thought it was a worthwhile and functional fixture. This week my appreciation for it increased tenfold. Looking at the large green bars, the evidence of my dedication to Wi-Fi, kept me on track at the times where I wished I could make just one phone call. Also handy was the Recent Connections function (on iOS you can tap on the Usage Meter and then swipe to the left to access it).
I also checked my phone bill online and was able to view my data usage and call history. There was a lapse in usage for four days on all of the displays of my usage, providing more reassurance that my Wi-Fi diet was successful!
Now that I am nearing the end of the week, it seems that my challenge wasn’t that difficult after all. I practiced all the same habits that I would were I on vacation in London or Paris, yet I was at home. At first my lack of connection while on the road or out running errands was irritating—what would I look at while waiting in line at a store? Yet now I am starting to see the benefits of a selective connection. Usually when I am out and about, my 3G connection is weak and unreliable. On my Wi-Fi diet I am have a strong connection in certain locations and none in others; when I DO connect I am driven to quickly take advantage of this; I text the people I need to text, call the people I need to call, and email the people I need to email. Wi-Fi has eliminated the concept of procrastination and overexposure. I feel that I am actually getting more done this way.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that my selectivity in data usage has removed some of the negative aspects of constant connection. I am not tempted to check my phone while I drive. When I go out to get lunch I focus on my surroundings instead of emailing or texting. Instead of picking a restaurant for dinner via a search engine or Yelp, I physically walk up and down the streets and decide based on what smells and looks good. At the risk of being overly cliché, without my smartphone I feel as though I am living my life instead of using social network sites to constantly post about it or relying on the internet to map out each step I take. Additionally, there is that feeling of freedom when going out after work, knowing that I am virtually unreachable by friends, family, or coworkers. I cherish the hour of alone time each day, a mini-vacation. Those blissful hours seem to reduce some of the other stresses of daily life. I have time to ponder problems and then deal with them later when I have Wi-Fi, as a calmer individual.
I don’t know that I’ll be sad come Friday evening when I turn Airplane Mode off and join the rest of my peers in constant connection. It will be nice to be able to use the phone occasionally on drives home, or send a quick text while running errands. But I also find a sense of relief in knowing that if life gets a little too hectic sometimes, I can always seek solace with a brief Wi-Fi diet.
Wi-Fi Diet Day 3: freedom from constant connection >>
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Zoe Paknad, Program Mgr
It seems that I have finally hit some of the biggest obstacles in my challenge to use only Wi-Fi and eliminate cellular data usage for a week.
As 
usual, I left my home in the morning in a hurry, with the overwhelming feeling that I was forgetting something. I hopped in my car and got on the freeway, and about halfway to work, realized what I had forgotten—my gas tank was completely empty. No matter, I thought, I’ll just find the nearest gas station.
At best, I have a general understanding of the area between where I live and where I work. I am limited to recognizing the buildings that I pass on the freeway each day. So I pulled off the freeway and did what any Silicon Valley girl would do: I “googled” the phrase “nearest gas station”, and waited for Google to pull up an interactive map that would drop a pin on my location and the locations of the nearest gas stations. Alas, Google could not process my request. My empty gas tank wasn’t the only thing I’d forgotten about this morning– I had also forgotten my Wi-Fi diet.
Without internet connection, I was forced to do something that many people of my generation have never had to do—drive around and physically look for a location as opposed to mapping it on my phone. Blaming my poor directional skills on my lack of modern technology, I accepted defeat and decided that I’d risk it and try and make it to work, where I’d use the Wi-Fi to locate a gas station on my map in advance and stop by it on the way home.
This story in the larger scheme of things is strikingly unimportant. We can live without our phones. If I had searched for a gas station for ten more minutes, I almost certainly would have been able to find one. It’s not a question of whether or not Chris and I can survive this Wi-Fi diet, but more a battle of willpower. It was easier and faster for me to search for a gas station on my phone and have my GPS direct me there, than it was to just look. Being constantly connected via my phone doesn’t just enable me to be lazy; it validates my laziness.
Unlike a real crash diet or trendy juice cleanse, I think I actually stand a chance on the Wi-Fi diet. Sure. I am addicted to having a constant connection (Don’t believe me? Check out the picture of my usage meter from yesterday, July 10th. I had such a craving for data that I used more Wi-Fi than my past Wi-Fi and cellular usage combined, coming in at almost 80 Megabytes in one day, my personal record. To put that in perspective, if I had been traveling and had used that much cellular data under my current plan, it’d have run me about $1,600 for one day of usage).
I am always on my phone, involved in social media and checking email. But I have so many advantages with the Wi-Fi diet that I have no reason not to succeed. I am lucky enough to have strong Wi-Fi both at home and at work, and of course, I am running the iPass Open Mobile Client on my phone.
Can I complete my Wi-Fi diet and finish out the week using only Wi-Fi? I think so. But between you and me, I can’t wait until Friday after work when I can turn my phone off Airplane Mode and bask in my constant connection.
Wi-Fi Diet Day 2: Not finding a gas station >>
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Zoe Paknad, Program Mgr
This week, Chris Churilo and I have pledged to go without cellular data and to use only Wi-Fi.
We began Monday morning upon arriving at work, and are going to try and last until Friday night without turning the Airplane Mode setting off of our smart phones. Initially I thought it would be easy— I don’t talk on the phone very much, and I can use the iPhone’s iMessage function to “text” others as long as their iPhones are running the latest iOS update.
But I began to feel the strain as I left work and realized on the commute home that I was completely off the grid without Wi-Fi.
Upon making it home, it hit me just how few people are running the same iOS update as I, and even less using apps that allow text-like messages sent back and forth between users.
I was struck by how without the 3G or 4G functionality, my smartphone was in essence no more than a small computer. It’s convenient when I was at work or on-the-go in a public area with Wi-Fi, but quickly abandoned when I had the opportunity to use my laptop.
Being unreachable via phone call or regular text message also gave me the illusion that I had many missed calls and unanswered texts from people who would be taken aback by my lack of response for an entire week. In fact, the temptation to turn my phone off of Airplane Mode for a second just to see what calls and texts I had missed was almost unbearable—I may have even cheated on my Wi-Fi diet were it not for the iPass Open Mobile client’s Usage Meter graphing my usage of cellular and Wi-Fi data.
Here is my Usage Meter as of this blog post. We started the Wi-Fi diet yesterday, July 9th, and you can see my small tab of cellular data from the morning before I came into work. My usage for today, the 10th, is entirely Wi-Fi. You can also see that I’ve used as much data this morning as I did all of yesterday. I wonder how many megabytes of data I will have used by the end of the day.
Even more pressing is the big question: Will I last using only Wi-Fi for the rest of the day? The week? Wish me luck!
Wi-Fi Diet Day 1: Did I miss a call or text? >>
It is Thursday evening, and I am coming to the last 24 hour stretch of my time on the Wi-Fi diet. Now that my time using only cellular data is coming to an end, I thought I’d use today’s blog post to think back on the things I learned from my experience.
