I find myself very annoyed lately with the distraction
that comes along with our technological society. And also very curious to learn
more about this.
I find myself distracted.
I find myself quite distressed about the distraction of
others.
I worry for the next generation. I worry for me too.
What has this world come to? Sometimes I feel sick as I
sit on a bus or a train and watch myself others. All be alone. But together.
I have had a particularly hard week at work this week. Disappointing..emotionally-
charged..Emotional…hard….stressful, changing, taxing, disappointing, challenging,
odd, crazy. Exciting-challenging-adrenaline. All mixed up-just like me.
After a week like this I am even more annoyed by this
digital distraction. I find it even one more level up there of sick. And I can’t
point to what it is exactly-just a wide range of emotions about it that all
come down to the same few elements in observing what we humans have become.
Basically after a week like I had this past week-I feel
ready to bury my Iphone. I settle for hiding it out of my sight and checking it
twice a day and not checking work emails at all on the weekend until Sunday
night now. My blood pressure is high enough thank you very much.
We humans now:
We miss sunsets and don’t notice they are occurring
because we are looking down on a train
We record and photograph sunsets because everything needs
to be shared
We feel the need to share our thoughts on sunsets with
others while it is happening
We can’t be alone in our thoughts anymore.
We are owned by companies with the invention of the
smartphone. “Here now you are a Manager-here’s a gift-you can work for us 24-7!”Gee
thanks. Thanks a lot. You have just ensured I will be divorced and not know my
children.
What about digital free days? OMG they are amazing when
shared with the right person. I had one last Monday and unintentionally too..
At my cottage with Soulkeeper. We talked and talked and walked for 3 hrs.and
came back and soaked up the Jacuzzi and take again, ate and sat by fires. At
one point we got lost in the forest and realized neither had brought out phones
and decided just to figure it all out. At another point we wanted to capture a
picture and realized the moments were too precious to interrupt and go find a
camera…so we just remembered the moment and enjoyed it.
That day gave me an abundance of energy and spirit. I
need more digital free days like that.
I love my smartphone just as much as the next person. I
love writing on my blog and often reading the blogs of others. Internet is a
fast way to find out info. However as soon as I feel my stress go up I realize quickly
it must have something to do with my digital distraction or my annoyance of the
habits of the distracted world around me. Or both.
To me the biggest favor we can do ourselves in lives is
to limit this crazy world of tweets and instragram and facebook and texts to
when it mattersand relaxes us and not as
a constant and ever there companion. To use it for us and not let it use us all
up. To unplug as least as much as we plug in.
And to stand up for our rights to not be connected all
day everyday every hour for companies who would not even pause for a moment if
we were to disappear. Where we would be replaced in a millisecond if we left or
were let go.
Understand this well: no company will ever give your
eulogy.
As I sit here at the cottage with my three children and
husband after 6 weeks of not all being at the cottage at the same time and
missing it like crazy…I am keenly aware of our alones and our togetherness. We
sit here united bantering back and forth. Me writing my blog, the Ipad being
shifted back and forth while linkdon profiles are viewed and laughed at. Music
is on too-popcorn eaten. The kids are asking to watch the second half of a
documentary we started this week on family night on the overt sexualiazation of
woman in the media (I thought it was the subjects my kids were interested in
but apparently it is the boobs.)
The very fact that I am here with them in this beautiful
room with the fire writing this blog about it all confuses me. Is it bad? Is it
good? Does it enrich my life or deplete my life? Or is it somewhere in between
the both-a perfect shade of gray?
Has the definition of “being present” changed with the
changing times. Has the new millennium redefined it?
I realize though all of this how technology is such a big
part of our lives and even thought part of it takes our time and lives
away-part of it enhances it too. Sometimes we crave the old fashionedness of
the olden days and other times we are thankful for the lessons we can learn through
this amazing speed of technology.
I crave it and I resent it. Both equally and both at
once.
In hinders my life and helps it. Together.
I feel more social and connected and more alone than I
have ever felt in my life.
I sit here by the fire and look at my little crazies and relish
in the craziness of it all.
Of what this world has become and what it is becoming.
And thankful for the awareness that I have around this
subject-for this in itself…………is one step ahead of those blissfully ignorant
many who have no idea likely of how digitally distracted they truly are. And
have no idea at all if they even want to be. Simply because they have never
stopped to ponder it.
All I know is that above all after a week like the one I
had this week….I am so very very grateful for the night I had tonight. Unplugged
and plugged digitally and surrounded by the ones I love. One of the biggest
benefits for me of having a very demanding job with often a lot of stress…..it
that it makes me appreciate the times I don’ have stress and push it all away.
Enjoy the calm of the ocean. Enjoy the cracking fire…admire the sunsets…..all
because I know my Monday-Friday has very few of these serene quiet moments in
them.
Stress and work demand that I be able to stay in the
present on weekends…that I revitalize and be able to recover to be fresh for
the week ahead,
Life needs to be a series of sprints vs. a lifetime of
marathons. And when you are sprinting each and every week…recovery on the weekends
is vital.
Even more vital is recovery without being digitally
distracted.
