Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Tommy Wilson: Digital detox - to hell with the cell

Bay of Plenty Times
4 Jan, 2019 03:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

This is the time to say "to hell with the cell" says Tommy Wilson. Getty / Images

This is the time to say "to hell with the cell" says Tommy Wilson. Getty / Images

For many of us the new year rings in another chance to see one and take one (chance) in life, and last year I chose to say farewell to Facebook and I have to say I'll never look back from that resolution.

This year I would like to sing from the same "say goodbye to stuff we don't need" songsheet and spend a lot less time on my cell phone, and a lot more time reading books – and who knows, maybe writing a couple more along the way.

I'm trying hard to digitally detox and stop talking for the sake of it. Hard to do when you are known as a bit of a yakity yak in and out of work huh?

The good news is I am not alone on this kaupapa (cause). I have been pleasantly surprised to find out a few of my mates and family friends are talking the same walk and have made the big call "to hell with the cell" controlling our lives – it's time to get a new one without one.

This opens a quiver of nervous arrows being fired back from friends and others, who rely on getting likes, callbacks and the "pacifier" digital dummy in our inbox, to tell us we are being valued by our friends and whanau.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Here's the thing.

When did this all start, this insecure blanket of being liked by people we hardly know on a list of so-called friends? Really, how many of them do we engage with on a weekly if not yearly basis to warrant the tag friends? Yet we share everything we know about nothing with them.

It's the question I asked myself last year at this time before I closed my Facebook account and now I am asking the same about the rest of my digital addiction, as I head into a digital detox. When did we sell our cellular souls to Facebook and Google and give them power of attorney over our very thoughts and decisions that we make each day?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Turns out we have all done it without even knowing it and now for some of us its time to push the eject button and say ka kite (see ya) to our cell phone addiction and spend more time talking kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) - not Facebook to Facebook.

There is a great song penned by, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters ever – Jimmy Buffett - that could go a long way to helping solve the solution of what to say to friends who you may have unfriended or not called them straight back after they have left a message.

Its title is If The Phone Doesn't Ring You Will Know That It's Me.

Check it out and check out Jimmy as well as he sure knows how to spin a good yarn and make you feel good at the same time.

Discover more

Letters: Museum conversation shouldn't be ignored

02 Jan 03:00 PM

Countdown on to first one-dayer at Bay Oval

02 Jan 04:00 PM

Letters: Revamped carpark in Mount Maunganui disappointing

03 Jan 03:00 PM

First tournament back for O'Dea brothers

03 Jan 07:04 PM

Jimmy knows his craft and is an accomplished troubadour like no other when putting lyrics to a tune and telling a story that can instantly transport you to another tropical part of the planet. The proof in Jimmy's pudding are songs that sound just as good sober as they do when you're wasted away in Margaritaville, his trademark best known ballad.

I bumped into Jimmy on a tropical desert island - as you do, and did back in the 80s and was fortunate to spend some time with him shooting the breeze and it was the Floridian with the changes in attitude and changes in latitude who encouraged me to write children's books, something he was doing for his daughter Savannah.

"Write your own story – it's your one and only chance in life to tell your history for your next generations to follow"

He said it then, many have said it since and I am saying it again now and sharing it with y'all.

Here goes a year of digital detox with a lot fewer meaningless messages and twitterless tweets.

I will pay it forward and apologise now for the no replies in the future if it can't wait until we catch up.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I may have missed your call or your email. It could well have been binned to junk or still sitting up there in cyber space.

However and whatever the circumstances of us getting back in touch, I'll leave it with my mate Mr Margaritaville to respond:

"If the phone doesn't ring you will know that it's me"

broblack@xtra.co.nz

Tommy Wilson writes under the pen name Tommy Kapai. He is a local best-selling author, writer and columnist in this paper for 18 years. He is also the executive director of Te Tuinga Whanau social support services.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Māori fighter stars in Netflix boxing event

07 Jul 01:24 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

06 Jul 10:51 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

Teen's sudden cancer diagnosis puts close-knit family on 'rollercoaster ride'

06 Jul 06:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Māori fighter stars in Netflix boxing event

Māori fighter stars in Netflix boxing event

07 Jul 01:24 AM

Cherneka Johnson's fight will stream live on Netflix, a first for a Kiwi boxer.

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

Police search for suspect after man shot in leg

06 Jul 10:51 PM
Teen's sudden cancer diagnosis puts close-knit family on 'rollercoaster ride'

Teen's sudden cancer diagnosis puts close-knit family on 'rollercoaster ride'

06 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Balancing power: What the employment law changes mean for you

Balancing power: What the employment law changes mean for you

06 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP