Soooo consequently I have been off of Facebook, blogging, and all of those other social avenues for over 4 months. This time has been a truly unexpected time of reflection on technology and the place it has had in my life for the past 15 years or so.
I have to tell you the first week was the hardest...and it's when I first realized just how much being on the computer and on social media outlets took up so much time in my life. Seriously I had the urge to check it all the time and wow what an eye opener.
Later I got to thinking how much of my life has been spent on the computer. I am part of the generation that really started using the computer as means of communication and social interaction. aol anyone? I mean I was at the ripe age of 14 or 15 when this whole thing kinda started and yeah...it's been that way ever since. I was deeply saddened how much real living I had missed as I sat tapping the keys of the keyboard and staring like a zombie at the screen in front of me. My life had really been made up of many "silicon" relationships. I had missed so much...and I had found that it was still stealing my time away...stealing it away from the people that really matter in my life.
So while it wasn't a chosen reprieve from technology...it was deeply needed. As time and months passed I realized how much freedom it gave me not to be tied down by the constant temptation and desire to check my Facebook...I started seeing it as something I really no longer wanted to be a part of at all. However...it has been my means of saying connected with family and friends that I don't get to see often enough. And so...I am reconnected on that front, but not without hesitation.
I ordered the computer...and it came to my door...I was really in no hurry to set it up. I wonder if the feelings I felt were similar to those same feelings a recovering alcoholic feels when someone asks them if they want a drink. I didn't want it to be like it was before. To be consumed...constantly distracted by the desire to be connected in the digital sense. I realized I had to set some guidelines for myself...some limitations because if I didn't learn anything else during this time of disconnect...is that one just needs some self control. (Something that I have traditionally lacked greatly) It has to be learned, to be put in to practice and made a habit.
I have had many realizations during this time...it has really made me look into how always being connected affects a person...and their relationships and the way they interact with the world. Today you seriously can't go a day without observing someone on their phone...computer, iPad or what have you. Faces down, eyes focused not on the person in front of them, but on a screen. Honestly it makes me sad. All for the sake of "progress" and "ease" we have lost so much.
I seriously just read an article today that addresses these very things I have been thinking and feeling throughout this process. The article touches on so many true and relevant things in relation to this very topic, but there is one paragraph that hit it on the nose for me...
"Are the conveniences of disembodied communication undermining the joy of embodied communication? Do I truly value the personal, face-to-face relationships in my life over the disembodied relationships I maintain online? Are my face-to-face relationships-with my neighbor, my wife (or in my case, husband) and my kids---suffering because I neglect the priority and joy of embodiment?"
While there is much more I could say about this subject, I will leave you with this today...what role is technology playing in your life? What affect on your life is the constant connectedness having? Is it benefiting or hindering your communication and relationships with others? Let us not forget the joy of being present, the exhilaration it brings to have a deep and meaningful conversation with someone--and the feeling you get when you look into someones eyes and really see them...
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