**As seen on LadyScribes today**
Ahhh – the internet.
That great nameless, faceless void in the sky that simultaneously keeps
us all connected while keeping us apart.
It is almost impossible to assimilate the fact that children born in the
last decade have never known a world without this sort of technology.
And really, not just the internet. Cell phones have
completely revolutionized the world as we know it. In many, many senses, that
is a great thing. No more being stranded on the side of the road, hoping a
stranger will stop and help. No more wondering if you need to buy milk, or if
there is already some at the house. No more angst about whether a loved one is
alright when they are a bit late. For this worrywart, those are all good
things.
But in my opinion, we will never again have a true notion of
solitude. We are connected to the rest of the world in a way that goes beyond a
healthy relationship, into the obsessive, all up in each other’s business sort
of way, where you are never alone.
People can’t even end a conversation before going to the bathroom! (Oh,
don’t get me started on that).
I think the result is, we have forgotten how to be alone. How to be quite, and still, and patient.
With our smartphones in our hands, we have the internet,
games, messaging, email—enough instant entertainment to keep a person occupied
for decades. Do we even remember
the days when waiting in the doctor’s office meant exactly that—waiting? Or
when we left the house, and we wouldn’t know who called until later that
evening, when the red light was blinking on the answering machine?
When I think of life before cell phones, I think of the
bliss of living in the moment. Multi-tasking was rubbing your belly while patting
your head (which actually works out better than juggling emails, writing, and all
the other tasks we try to cram into the same moment in time), and messaging was
sitting down to write a letter using pen, paper, and *gasp* cursive. There was no glow of electronic screens
constantly bathing my face, no pings and beeps and wooshing punctuating the
day.
Yes, I was young and with less responsibilities, but I know
life was slower for everyone back then. And quieter. And less chaotic. I realized recently that my cell phone
is almost never out of my sight. Ever. It’s the last thing I look at before I
go to bed, the first thing when I wake up, and my constant companion as I
navigate the 50 million tasks of the day.
And you know what? I don’t like that anymore. I’ve decided that I want to be out of contact a bit. I want
to walk away from that siren device, cutting the invisible string that ties
us. I want to be unavailable for a
few hours, and out of touch on occasion.
I want to remember what solitude feels like. Not
loneliness—just privacy. Holding a few things to myself instead of sharing so
much on a constant basis. I want to have something to talk about with friends
when I see them that they haven’t already read on my Facebook page or on
Twitter. I miss sharing good news
in person—don’t you?
So, for a little while, I’m going to try to take a step
back. I’m going to leave my cell phone on the kitchen hours and walk away when
I’m in the house. I’m going to turn off the notifications, choosing instead to
check on things in my own time.
Who knows—maybe I’ll relearn what it feels like to not instantly know what tomorrow’s
weather is, or when Genghis Khan roamed, or how many movies Clint Eastwood has
directed. Crazy, huh?
So tell me—how attached are you to your cell phone? Are you
ever more than a stones’ throw from it? Do you remember what it was like before
they were invented? I’ll warn you
in advance that I’m working the day job today during the Christmas rush, so I
won’t get back here until this evening. Fitting, no? ;)
