As I sit here on my laptop, cell phone by my side, and iPad within reach, I begin to think about just we have all come to rely on--not each other, but the two-dimensional list of qualities in the "about me" section of our Facebook profiles, the hopes that all 487 of our Instagram followers will like our carefully filtered photos, or that maybe one day Michael Bublé or "insert famous celebrity's name here" will follow us back on Twitter. And I must make a careful point of clarification that "we" and "our" and "me" refers to all of us, and not just millennials. Ages way too young to older than expected have all become consumed by this thing called technology. We have become so engrossed and dependent upon the digital lives we have created online that we often forget to live our real lives.
A few weeks ago, I decided to put down all of my technology for a couple of hours and just take a drive, write and meditate on my thoughts. It was the most thought-clearing, open, free time I have felt in a long time. New ideas filled my mind, positivity filled my soul and my heartfelt renewed.
After that time of rejuvenation, I decided I needed that every week. From then on, I have designated one day of my week to put all of my technology down, specifically to breathe some fresh air and do what I love the most--write. I cannot even begin to explain how that has helped me in my life. I do not feel stressed out, angered or confused in situations which those emotions would normally occur. Instead, I feel like a completely new me.
There is a song by one of my favorite bands, Relient K, called "Look On Up," and one of my favorite lines in the song is:
Look on up to the sky / I wonder why I put a filter between beauty and my eyes
I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to wanting to share moments with all of my friends and family as they transpire, but I think there comes a point when you realize that a couple of pictures to capture a moment are sufficient to aide your future self in remembrance. Any more than that, and your memory will not be of the steep staircase you almost fell up climbing The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Firenze, Italia, or the transcending lines of ripples coming toward you as the sunlight shows every detail as you sit with a loved one deep in the mountains. Instead, your memory will be of the 27 failed attempts it took for you to get the right angle just so you could show your followers that your Sunday was cooler than theirs.
It's the big moments, but the little ones too. It's putting down your cell phone to spend time with the people you care about and finding the time in your evening off to not get sucked into one more cliffhanger episode of "Scandal," but putting the technology down and reading a good book, learning a new trade or stumbling down a new trail.
I have a fondness for technology in the way it helps us to communicate across 20-some different time zones, but I refuse to let it enslave me in its distracting traps. There are so many more beautiful things to see beyond the screens of my devices.
