When you go four-wheel driving, you do it for recreation. And as much as I struggle to say this, I do it for work. Although many of my mates chip me, asking me: “Pat, when are you going on your next holiday?!” If only they knew. Yes, I still love it, but it is actually work. When you have a shower in your new shower tent, you don’t usually have to film it from multiple angles, then take still images, then worry about audio if a piece to camera is required, and then worry about what you might say about said shower tent. So yes, sometimes it is actually work.
So knowing this, having remote internet is pretty damn handy. Wanna check up on the spec of my new shower or tent that I’m presenting? Plug up the Starlink, and a few minutes later you’re online, with faster internet than I have at home. It’s fast, efficient, and saves printing loads of documents like the old days. We’ve also used Starlink to help diagnose and fix mechanical issues and book cars into workshops when we’re way out of cell phone range. And then there’s the ability to video family and friends on WhatsApp. It definitely has its perks.
Yet the downsides of Starlink are profound, and often hidden. The very reason we spend so much on our 4X4s is to get away from it all. We used to be able to. Away from social media. Away from emails. Away from Netflix. Thanks to Starlink, this requires a new level of discipline. We know that smartphones and their associated Apps are designed to be habit-forming and dopamine-hit-inducing.
A trip to the outback used to be an easy place to detox from it all, knowing that there is no national news, no Facebook, and no TikTok or Insta. All of these platforms don’t allow the brain to rest, and they literally change our brainwaves for the worse. It takes a few days off those Apps to calm our brains, and get back to our creative selves. Staying up all night watching Netflix or scrolling on socials will almost certainly mean that you’ll miss that killer sunrise. Countless studies have shown that high internet usage equates to unhappy people. The further we are away from cities and social media, the happier we are.
But how do you get off that unhealthy media cycle, when Elon has made the media accessible anywhere on the planet? The answer? I genuinely don’t know. But here are a few options:
- Buy a Starlink, but agree with your crew to only use it in an emergency, or on a very limited timeframe (like once every four days)
- Don’t buy a Starlink, and stick to older-school comms like Satphones for emergency communications
- Pretend you don’t have a problem as you’re hooked on Insta, and see if that makes you happy (not recommended)
Above all, be conscious of the time you spend on your devices, and on the internet. Getting back to mother nature is the best thing you can do for body and mind. Living a sedentary life on your phone and posting and scrolling mindlessly sure as heck isn’t. Believe me, I’ve tried both.
Cheers,
Pat
