Would it be better to just unplug entirely from the Internet?
From this story my mind is questioning everything I've taken for granted: my innocence, the world in simpler times, my life before the Internet arrived.
While I am very grateful for computers and Internet, I struggle with the loss of so many things my daughters will never experience.
This topic comes up frequently on my blog, because I don't think I've ever quite adjusted to life back in North America after living in the rainforest without electricity, indoor plumbing and telephones. In those few short years I experienced a lifetime of simple and extraordinary joys.
William Blake said it best in the Auguries of Innocence:
To see a world in a grain of sand,
and a heaven in a wildflower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour.
That is exactly what I felt, what I lived every moment, in the rainforest.
In a world humming on social media, I realize how much I took for granted before the invention of the Internet...
1. The reward of working hard to answer a question on my own.
2. The skills I developed to communicate verbally.
3. The number of hours I spent running barefoot outside with children in our neighborhood.
4. The thrill of playing something as foreign as Donkey Kong on our Zenith TV.
5. The absence of the addiction to "hop online" to connect.
6. Using encyclopedias to study a foreign destination.
7. Using maps to calculate distance and time for a journey.
8. Writing artistic letters to family and friends and reading letters received.
9. Following weather patterns in the daily newspaper.
10. Pen pals with people living around the world.
I've come to accept that I will never be able to get into Twitter.
I know that Facebook and blogging have helped me stay connected to adults during my husband's deployment, and that I'll most likely pull away from them a bit upon his return home.
Not so long ago I joked with all of my friends that I would never get a cell phone. Actually I was quite serious. I said I would be 90 years old and be the only one without one. Then I met my husband and saw the value in getting a cell phone so I could talk with him when he was stationed in Japan and I was still in the U.S.
I still don't like having a cell phone. I often leave it off and forget about it.
When I took a blogging vacation for a year I still was online constantly, working on the digital magazine The Motherhood Muse, that I published for that year. But it was a break from this blog and I was fine with it.
So I am seriously thinking now about taking a break from the Internet entirely. Unplugging it completely.
Have you ever done this?
In order to ensure that I don't live in the dark, maybe I'll subscribe to the newspaper. We don't have cable, so maybe I'll call my parents daily to get the news. They'll weed out those depressing news clips.
But then I wouldn't have email, so I'd be forced to use my cell phone more. Hmm...
Just beginning to contemplate unplugging, seriously.
21 comments:
Wow! That is a huge step to be completely unplugged! But, I can see where you're coming from, the news is depressing. I'm not sure I could really ever unplug for a long period...I've done it for a few days, but nothing long-term. I'll be interested to see what you come up with :)
Kimberly, I miss letter writing and pen pals very much. I'm highly unreliable with respect to my cell phone as well. I have considered going completely unplugged. We do this when we go camping for example. But even when I took August off, there were 'requirements' to keep the blog running - as if the world would come to an end if it stopped running. Being connected is part of what makes us human, so in that sense the internet is not so very bad, but disconnecting from it in order to reconnect with those most important people in our lives, including ourselves, is very necessary also. I'm with you in your dilemma. By the way, I stopped reading the newspaper/news sites (and stopped watching the news) years ago. Somehow I still find out the latest news, but I don't have to suffer through the horrible stories that I am just too sensitive to bear.
I tried unplugging but had a physical reaction! :) I've determined that I don't want to unplug... I just want to manage my time spent online better than I do.
Your post also reminded me of why I quit news... it's not so much the Internet that's scary... it's the world in general.
But as you said, there are so many beautiful things, too.
Your post sounds like a book idea to me. Just sayin'. :)
So I've been thinking a week, a month, but then part of me wants to unplug for a year. I think unplugging me will force me to connect with others on a different level, maybe going back to handwritten letters and phone calls just to chat, maybe spending more time in the moment than 'wondering' what's going on in the online community.
Would my absence frustrate friends/colleagues/family who may have to adjust their methods of communication in order to reach me?
Would my absence make it difficult to pay my bills?
Maybe I need to write a post about this to try and figure out if I could do it... I kind of secretly wish my husband and I could just move to the rainforest and live there for a year with our daughters.
Well I am coming out and saying it! You would be missed too much!! But I understand you perfectly. I am not sure how it would work though, everytng is online nowadays. And newspapers I believe are even worse at bringing bad news...
I totally understand your predicament. In fact, last night when my son fussed over the computer (again) when we told him to stop playing, I told my hubby that if it causes so much stress and unhappiness, we should just get rid of it. I think it's good to unplug once in awhile. Then, when you come back, you'd maybe look at it with a different perspective and appreciate it more.
You have to do what's right for you and your family. Of course we would miss you, that goes without saying, but what's best for you? It's good that you're thinking about it, about the pitfalls there might be (paying bills for instance). If you do it, you don't necessarily need to set a time limit. You'll know when you're ready to come back.
I love what you wrote, and what you're thinking about.
It sounds impossible, but so so freeing at the same time.
I'll just say it one more time- I love what you wrote.
Understand where you're coming from, particularly in the News area. I refuse to watch any News shows at all, I just don't want to hear it or see it. I still know what's going on just kinda by osmosis.
I used to say I would never have a home computer or a smart phone, then I had to take my work laptop home and had a work Blackberry. I eventually decided to get my own personal laptop and then the iThingy (iPhone).
Now I feel like I am way too plugged in to cyber space, but, there are so many nice people I have met through reading blogs and finding new and old friends on FB and G+. I am planning to cut back a bit and have re-organized FB to only view "close friends", but, don't think I could unplug now.
I'll be on Rotary biz starting this Weds thru next Monday and will likely have very little time for checking in, but, I'll try to keep up with a few folks like yourself because I enjoy the perspective your bring and want to know how it's going as you count down to hubby returning and little girl #3.
I can imagine how you feel. And at times, a part of me craves the same thing. Going back to basics, to what once mattered, and sadly what's often left behind...thanks for sharing this lovely post! =)
I understand totally what you're saying. I don't know that I could unplug at this point. I just keep making time to unplug here and there for a few hours and enjoy every minute.
I had a close brush with Teddy Bundy when I was at FSU in 1977. I know what it's like to have a horrible thing happen close by and to see it unfold on tv. The internet wasn't pervasive then, nor were cell phones. But it was overwhelming. It changes your life in a million ways, small and large and there's never really a way to avoid it. I think all anyone can really do in the onslaught of the evil is to keep trying to bring out the good, the pure, the beautiful and spiritual. They are the best weapons we have.
Good luck with your decision. Hope you come back if you do unplug - I've been enjoying your blog.
I unplug from time to time for weeks at a time. Sometimes I just need to focus on what is important and take time for myself and my family. I always come back, but it's always with a fresh perspective and less burnt out.
I've been considering doing the same thing. I just came back after a three week respite from my social networks, and much as I hate to admit it, it was wonderful. I was so much more productive without the interference of the internet.
Oh, and by the way,I have an award for you on my blog. Swing by to get it whenever you get the chance!
I found myself nodding my head through your entire post. And yet, the irony is...I would never have found your writing, were it not for this strange and crazy phenomenon called the Internet. I enjoy your posts and look forward to them.
So, while I will continue to ignore my cell phone, looks like I'm hooked online! I do limit my time, though, so I can continue to read books (and write them, too!).
I do think about unplugging, but I know I couldn't do it as a writer. Too much of what I do needs the internet/social media.
But on a personal level, I so get it. This idea that answers are expected now is overwhelming at times. Gone are the days of sitting in the school nurse's office and waiting until the school reached my mom. Either they'd get a busy signal or Mom was (GASP) out grocery shopping. I didn't die. I learned the art of patience. I think my daughters will suffer from the get-it-now mentality electronics and the digital age suppors.
If you unplug, I will miss your witty and lovely posts, but I will be cheering for you, too.
It's so tempting to unplug.
At my daughter's parent/teacher conferences on Friday, the headmaster passed out a letter he had written about parenting, about how fearful and over-protective parents have become and about how their anxiety causes anxiety in their children and prevents children from experiencing many of the things they should experience - failure, disappointment, not always being first or best - because children need to learn how to cope from those experiences. He speculated as to why parents feel the world is so much more dangerous now than when their parents were parents - during civil rights riots, Vietnam, the assassination of a president, etc. - and felt that much of it had to do with constant bombardment by the media, showing us any and every horror and sensationalizing everything.
We don't have cable or a dish, so we don't watch TV, but we still get all the bad news online. It's important to be aware of the problems in the world, but equally important not to be oppressed, depressed and overwhelmed by them.
I don't think I can unplug completely. As a writer, I need to be online in this day and age. But I can limit it to email and blogging with a little bit of Face Book thrown in and try not to get sucked into the rest. It's much harder trying to protect the kids from the internet...
Thank you everyone for all of your thoughtful comments; they've really got my mind spinning about this idea. It also makes me feel better knowing that so many of us feel this way. I live my life with the mantra of everything in moderation, so I think I could apply this to the use of Internet; however, part of me just wants to cut it out entirely for some time to see what it is like to go fully without it. Thanks for all of your support!!
While I would be saddened to see you go, perhaps that what you need at this time.
Personally, I wouldn't set a limit, keep it open.
I often too think about the complexities of technology.
While everything is at our fingertips, what are we missing? What social skills fail to be practiced?
I hope you are able to find the right balance for you and your family.
Hi, as weird as it seems we don't watch the news...especially at night, I can get the weather, details I need or anything else important from family or unfortunately google it. I sometimes feel guilty because I don't think I spend enough time with my blog, twitter or facebook, but what I do spend time with is my family and that is sooo much more important! Do what you feel you need, maybe a break is good! Keep us posted...we would miss you!
Living in a Rain Forest sounds like such a once-in-a-lifetime, amazing experience! You are so lucky to have been given that opportunity.
Unplugging may not always be an option, but limiting your time (and your kids time) connected is. We still own a VERY big dictionary on a dictionary stand that my kids use instead of a computer. I still like Twitter, but don't socialize there nearly as much as I used to. I enjoy Facebook, but am also hit or miss there.
All things in moderation. Right?
I think you and I are very similar (although I'm not sure how I'd do in the rainforest, I'm a bit more high-maintenance/I-need-a-5th-floor-Hilton-with-AC kind of girl who doesn't like spiders...) but re. the whole internet thing, I totally get you. We are all here watching ourselves grapple with this new addiction to being connected. I'm reading a fabulous novel (I know you're a writer so you may like this novel) called Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart - all about our society in the next generation - where this Facebooking takes us. It's surreal how it takes us over. I find myself mourning for your rainforest time only in my own life - like, what did we all do pre-Net? Now you go to a cafe, everyone's staring into their iPhones/iMacs. Sometimes my kids find me on my iPad and I'm more engaged w. what I'm doing there than I am w. them - and this for me is not a good thing. We unplugged our TV and cable in June because of this news-neurosis it kept streaming into the house...I don't read or get newspapers. If the big news happens, we will hear about it. I don't read it on the Net either. I feel detoxified. Anyway sorry for babbling - I totally get your longing for simpler times, yet...I have a hard time thinking what we would do without the Net (addicted, much?!)
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