ADDICTED AFFLICTED
Thursday Jan. 3, 2019
Wake up, walk, talk, breathe – don’t connect with the world just yet.
Not yet, not today (or plan to someday soon) ~ take that day away from being connected. Unplug. Unwind. Disconnect. Try it one morning – no clock, no watch. No radio or TV, no text, no email, no device. No newspapers, no conversation.
Just you. And the world.
The first few minutes feel weird because we are ‘out of our habit zone’.
Given our addiction to technology the urge to check email, check texts, check the time and weather, check the news, check your wearable – will be somewhere between mildly uncomfortable and excruciating. If it’s a workday for you (Thursdays usually are) you’ll find this borderline-impossible. Sure, you could try it on a weekend, it won’t be much easier.
I find I can get by for an hour or so without my technology, but really suffer without my newspapers. I find on days when they don’t show up for some reason my entire morning is thrown off.
Why is it important for us to disconnect? Good question.
If we ‘never disconnect’ we lose sight of the difference, of how once we were vis-à-vis how we are today – not to create stress but to shelve it, not to create better ways but to create better understanding. We won’t go back, but if we did could we survive? Could we cope without everything technology brings us? I don’t mean “could we cope on a beach in paradise?” but could we cope where we are, as we are, with what we have – just without being ‘connected’ as we are so completely addicted to being?
