For many people today, the separation of time spent at work and time spent away from work has disappeared. Before the digital revolution, a fair few workers would have worked during their commute: reading a report perhaps, or preparing notes in advance of an afternoon meeting. But there were technological limits to this type of activity. With no email, your connection to a Sarah or a James hinged on meeting them once you arrived in the office or giving them a call from your desk. While reading a report, you weren't receiving ‘pings’ asking you to handle some other matter. Nowadays, technology facilitates and encourages multiple simultaneous conversations across numerous platforms. Once you’re online – which could be from the moment you wake up – work activities can easily suck you in: answering emails, checking technical reports, looking for updates, requesting information from colleagues, editing files, and more, all while you make coffee, eat breakfast, get the kids dressed, take them to school, and head for the train.

In today's digital world, the line between your public persona and private affairs is blurring. The scenario above is an exaggeration: chances are, an imaginary company like Chem-Care wouldn't actually direct such a personal ad in public like that, although tying your purchase in one venue to your location in another is already happening. What you think is your private business – you have a couple of warts, they’re annoying, you’re bothered by them, and you’d rather not advertise this to others – is now a business opportunity that algorithms can identify and use as the basis for steering your future purchases in a specific direction. Massive investments are being made right now by all sorts of companies to capitalize on and monetize these sorts of opportunities. Whether it is information based on your online search activity or the places you frequent when you’re out spending money, you’re now just one of billions of other targeted humans.

Digital life demands and creates data shadows and footprints made up of trillions of our individual responses to the prompts and invitations playing out on our devices, the services located within them, and the world at large.

Hopefully this scenario sounds appealing and achievable. We think it starts to set out what a slow computing day might look like. As we pointed out in Chapter 1, slow computing is a means to address the various issues that acceleration and data extraction create. It seeks to do this in a way that prioritizes and protects your needs and interests, and creates public good for society as a whole. Practising slow computing requires individual and collective actions: people making decisions to change how they lead their digital lives by considering and changing their own situations, and pooling their actions and drawing on the diverse actions of others.

This chapter focuses on tactics you individually can use to fulfil the strategy of slow computing. It is about taking ownership of the issue and being proactive in tackling acceleration and extraction at a personal level. To that end, we set out some interventions aimed at slowing down your computing. We emphasize reconfiguring the time you spend on your digital participation, while curating and limiting the extent to which you leave data footprints and cast data shadows. Adopting these ideas can be empowering because it can give you back a degree of control.

This doesn't sound too bad, does it? You’re still feeling the joy of computing, but more on your terms. You’ve achieved some kind of balance between acceleration and data extraction and getting on with your everyday life. You’ve found some harmony between work and home. You’re living a slow computing life. You’re no longer a slave to your devices; you’ve more freedom from the digital leash. You’re less harried, stressed and distracted. You’re not careening through life, but doing more of the things you want, when you want to, and you’re not as beholden to the demands of others. You feel like you have more time for yourself – for rest, leisure, personal interests and goals, and contemplation. You’re doing fewer things, but you’re enjoying what you do more. In fact, you feel like you’ve become more productive and your work has improved. It seems like you’ve got more control over your digital footprints and shadows. You’re still using services, but you have a hand in deciding what data are gathered. You have a better sense of your rights and an understanding about how to challenge malpractice.