There are all things that we would all like to take a break from. School, work, stupidity, everyday responsibilities, the list goes on and on. But there is one thing that fairly few of even think to drop and get some space from our phones.
Now I, personally, have no idea how much time I spend on my phone. I have no idea how much time I spend on my laptop, or on the internet in general. All I can say is that I know it's a lot, and that the very thought of it scares me. That it gets bigger every time I "check the time," meaning that instead of actually briefly looking at the time, I go and check every single notification that pops up, angry and red on my screen, and completely forget what time it is. It gets bigger with each scroll through Facebook and becomes even more terrifying when I realize that I've been looping through the same old posts. Over and over again. Hours turn into seconds every time Netflix pulls me into a new show, and everywhere I go I seem to be taking a picture of something in order to document it so that I won't forget it later on. I'm constantly looking for new apps and games, things to keep me occupied during life's more boring moments.
And here's the thing, I don't think a lot of us, in general, are paying attention to how much time we waste on the internet. Sure, we may justify that time, saying that our computers are a must for school and work and that those phones are needed to keep in contact with our loved ones, but really, how much is our time spent on our electronics actually doing that? I'll go on my laptop, saying that I'll write an article, which usually takes about an hour to write an edit, but instead of spending that hour writing it, I spend another two, three hours getting distracted by pop-up notifications on Facebook. Looking at videos, posts, texting friends. A good portion of the time I put aside for "writing" actually ends up being wasted on anything else but. It's something that so many of us are guilty of, using the internet's many facets to procrastinate, and, to be frank, it's slowly draining us away from our lives.
When I think of all my best, most well-lived moments, the one thing they all have in common is not content, it's not a constant reel of ski trips or cute things my dog has done (although I will admit, a lot of them are). It's not just that they all made me extremely happy either. It's that neither my phone nor my computer is there to interrupt the moment in any of them. As a matter of fact, in most of these memories, my phone had been rendered useless. Either it had been broken, forgotten, or just out of service, and I can say with absolute certainty that those moments were lived with extra amounts of clarity because I wasn't looking through the lens of my phone's camera, trying to capture every moment. I wasn't getting distracted by social media, or impatient to finish the next episode of whatever was on Netflix. I was living. In the moment. Just me and my mind to remember it all.
I know phones have their benefits. They keep us from getting lost, and make sure that we're prepared for whatever the weather may have in store for us today, but is it really living when all we're doing is looking down, seeing the world through the eye-exhausting screens of our phones all the time?
So maybe it's time to put down the phone, close that laptop, and take a break. Maybe instead of looking at photographs of places you'd like to go, it's time to actually go to those places. Maybe instead of getting wrapped up in apps and games, it's time to walk outside and look to see what the world has in store for you today. Maybe, instead of filling your ears with music 24/7, it's time to pull out those headphones and just listen. Listen to the chirping of birds and the humming of bugs. To the cars grumbling their way across the street. To people mumbling in incoherent sentences and the wind blowing by.
My point is that you don't need to be on the internet at all times in order to survive. We breathe air, not Wi-Fi signals, it's not the end of the world if you're in a place that's lacking it. Your phone is not a part of your person, it's OK if it's forgotten at home sometimes. So unplug from whatever screen you're staring and take a break. You can't let technology put your life on hold forever, go out, live a little. You'll be amazed by what you see out there.