#DoNotDisturb

How I Ghosted My Cell Phone to Take Back My Life

By: Jedediah Bila

Narrated by: Jedediah Bila

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Have you ever looked at your email, then texts, then Facebook, then Twitter, then email, then Instagram, then Candy Crush, then texts, then Snapchat, then texts again, and now you’ve wasted the time you had set aside for more important things?

Jedediah Bila has solved her own Obsessive Compulsive Tech Disorder, and she did it without throwing away her devices.

It's time to switch on airplane mode and settle into Jedediah Bila’s #DoNotDisturb: How I Ghosted My Cell Phone to Take Back My Life.

In this timely, entertaining, and inspiring audiobook, Jedediah Bila chronicles her chaotic, confusing, and all-consuming love-hate relationship with - her cell phone. Stepping back from the whirlwind of texting, social media, and an endless sea of apps, Bila questions how our relationships, character, and sanity have suffered from our deep dive into the digital abyss. Exploring the toll that tech addiction took on her life, Bila reveals her missteps and mistakes, including several upending, life-altering months swirling in an ex-boyfriend’s cell-phone-enabled double life, and how a low-tech millennial later stole her heart.

Travel with Jedediah through the embarrassing and catastrophic consequences of Ménage-a-Tech relationships, social media's Perception Deception, and the One-Potato-Chip-Problem of trying to resist Silicon Valley's hypnotic, slot-machine software designed to lure you in. Bila reveals how she navigated away from an unhealthy, oversaturated diet of tech junk food to striking just the right balance with technology to let her unplugged, real-life moments take charge.

In #DoNotDisturb, Bila applies her trademark no-nonsense, common-sense, personal responsibility and accountability-centered approach, warning us that if we don’t stop acting like robots, our very humanity is at stake.

Through warm anecdotes and cold, hard truths, Bila reveals how she pulled her way out of the tech fog to keep her eyes focused on the life right in front of her. And how you can too.

©2018 Jedediah Bila (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Hallelujah! There is hope for the future!!

Just finished listening to the audio version. I absolutely love it when the author does it themselves! You can feel the passion coming from Jedediah’s heart as she tells the serious, and often humorous stories throughout the book. She certainly has shed some light on the errors of my ways. Thank you Jedediah, this is one for the ages!! I cannot wait to pass this on to my children!

Not for me, but doesn't mean others can't like it.

I realized recently that I spend a disgusting amount of time on my phone, and I have taken measures to be much more aware and productive. So when this book popped up on my Audible recommendation list, and I had some unused credits, I decided to give it a try, well aware of the irony that I was listening to it on my mobile device.

Unfortunately, I could only make it halfway through before I gave up. I tried to get through it all. I really did. I dig the message in the book, but for someone who had already started down that path to reduce their tech time, there is nothing groundbreaking here that I didn't already know.

Rather, the author spends a lot of time meandering around the point to fill space. As an example, she goes through the stories of how both sets of her grandparents met and fell in love, just to seemingly (eventually) make the point that she was naive and it came as a shock that her boyfriend would cheat on her, and that technology can facilitate in bringing out the worst in people. I agree with that point. I didn't need to learn about her family history to hear it.

She does have several personal stories that were on topic and really added to the narrative. I laughed at her story about how she took mirror butt selfies when she was working out, and I thought the story of how she missed the entire experience of an amusement park ride because she got lost in her phone was striking and really spoke to the theme of the book.

As far as the tone of the audiobook went, the way she spoke made me feel like I was a part of a one way gossip session... you know... when you have a friend who just indignantly goes on and on about whatever is currently annoying them? The audiobook amounts to a lot of complaining and not a lot of solutions, and it's hard to sit for hours taking that kind of tone in. Maybe the book has the advantage over the audio in this regard, as much of the book seems like it could be read with a neutral tone in mind.

If you are thinking of purchasing this book because you are a Jedediah Bila fan, then I say go for it. You might enjoy this book immensely, and you may get some really good tips from it. Not every celebrity is writing about this kind of subject manner, and I do think that it's an important topic to talk about, and I applaud her for bringing it up. But, this book seems like it was written for her fans in mind... honestly, it just wasn't for me, but I don't disagree with the people who did enjoy it and took something positive from it.

My new hero!!

I bought this book because I watch you on Fox. I love your opinions, your sass, and so much more. You are my newest hero!! I needed this book!! Thank you! Now finish the next one so I have something else to look forward to!!

Put it down

Must read for someone looking for more quality time. It’s a good indication that being always connected is not healthy for you, family, or even your business relationships.

Great book

Resourceful, insightful, and great information, loved it! Thanks for writing this book. It was a joy to listen to!

A lot of uncommon common sense inside this one

So I found myself spending quality time with myself in the Akron/Canton airport Saturday and decided I was not going to just waste the day switching between Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and email. I had the audio version of #DoNotDisturb but decided to get the Kindle version and read and listen. I am glad I did and recommend you do the same.

There is a lot of uncommon common sense for today's unsocial #socialmedia world contained within the pages of this book. Jedediah tells her story, so you will learn a lot you probably didn't know about her life so far, and the lessons she has learned from her experience inside the social media rabbit hole. Some you may know and just not practice and some of the information may surprise you. Either way we do all need to be reminded and learning steps you can take to take back control of your life is something we all can benefit from, and this is key, IF we CHOOSE to do so. It IS up to us as we are reminded.

"Technology, like many other things and people we encounter, only has as much power as we're willing to give it."

How much power are you giving social media over your life?

I believe everyone should read this book. I am glad I did.

Wonderful book! So much truth! Loved it!

This book was Wonderful! I downloaded it on preorder when I heard about it on The Five! Amazing job!

her insight to what is going on around us that most of us are not even aware of.

that she could point out the simple pleasures, especially in nature that made my life on earth the past 77 yrs a life that had magic, it had texture, color, and emotion and real people that you could hug, cry, and laugh with. thank you for this wonderful book

Title gave me expectations re: suggestions

Enjoyable book in that you get to know the author but expected more methods and strategies vs. personal stories. Less of a how to than I would have hoped.

is that it?

I completely get the premise for why she wrote the book, but it was pretty much just her vocalizing her desire to live in a pre-tech world. awesome, me too... but we don't so if you're going to tell people to live tech-less, you need some practical ideas for how to do it, not just "don't use your phone." I wasn't hoping for some earth-shattering formula to subtly disconnect yourself from the world, but I was hoping for something far more creative than what it was.