Pico Iyer Quotes

We have got so caught up in an insular world that swings between our phones, our computers and our heads that we have forgotten to look out of the window, and say, 'Hey! It's raining.'

These days, unplugged places are getting hard to find.

While technology empowers us to remain connected all the time, it's up to us as people to decide when is it not appropriate to be connected... to opt out when you need to.

Fifteen years ago, the internet was an escape from the real world. Now the real world is an escape from the internet.

We're plugged in 24 hours a day now. We're all part of one big machine, whether we are conscious of that or not. And if we can't unplug from that machine, eventually we're going to become mindless.

I feel disconnected, like I don't know where I am, if I'm on my phone too much. I'm also just the type to call. I'm not good on text.

When digital culture first came along, it was supposed to create more time, by allowing us to shift time around. Somehow instead we've strapped devices to ourselves that ping us all the time.

The moment of drifting into thought has been so clipped by modern technology. Our lives are filled with distraction with smartphones and all the rest. People are so locked into not being present.

I'm not one of those people who sits at dinner on their iPhone all night. I'm either working or I'm not. I've gone down that path where you sleep with your phone beside the bed and send an email just before you put your head down and check everything again when you wake up, and I don't like it.

I'm always wondering: Have all these time-saving devices actually saved us any time, or have they just created a million fetishes and obsessions that keep us from the quiet half hour we should be taking to sit and do nothing every day?

I had an iPhone, and then I'd forget my iPhone at home, and I'd be like, 'God, I feel so good. I'm having such a good day.' And then I'd realize, 'Oh - it's because I'm not checking my email nineteen thousand times.'

Give yourself time to digitally detox from your constantly connected life, and keep your phone away from your bed.

Yes, I'm grateful for technology. But I'm also happy for the off switch.

Almost every time I go to the ocean, I think about throwing my phone right into it. Sometimes, you pull that thing out of your pocket, you look at it, and you're like, 'What was I just going to do with this? Was I going to take a note? Was I going to check my email? Was I going to take a picture?'

You look out on the street, and everyone has their heads in their phones. Nobody's really looking up at the sky or the buildings and taking the day in. I try to be conscious of it, but everybody falls prey to it.

I came off Snapchat. I was done with it... I think I spent too much time on it.

Beyond just the respect that you want to have, people just miss out on being in the moment when they have a screen in front of their face. I just don't know to tell people. I feel it's like, you know, 'Turn off your phone and go to the theater.'

The dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about is that things just might have been better before the Internet. We had more time to ourselves before cell phones and text messaging and Facebook consumed our lives.

I definitely find my time to be away from my phone because I think that's important, but when it comes to work and friends, I feel like everything is on my phone. I'll, like, leave my phone in my room for a few hours when I need my space.

In this day and age, technology has overtaken our lives and we are disconnected from reality.

I don't like the idea of being connected to the world all the time. One should have space and time for oneself.

Though there is something cruel about being in Hawaii and you have a computer in front of you the whole time.

One thing that's interesting to me is how we as humans seem to be losing our ability to stand still and be alone with our thoughts. If you want to, you have to arrange it now. You have to go off where there's no WiFi and leave your equipment behind, but still have some sort of GPS tracking to make sure you don't get lost or die.

To be a modern person in 2012, you are often required to have some electronics in your life. And I do. I try to put that phone down, put the computer away, and get out there and hike in the woods; feel it in my feet, feel it in my hands; get out in the garden and feel the soil under my fingers, my fingertips and my fingernails. I try to be involved in nature in a very tactile way. I think that's important.

I often find that I like the vibe of not having technology around me.