It Isn't Disconnecting. It's Reconnecting.

We live in an interesting world. If you would have told me twenty five years ago that someday most people in developed countries would be walking around with computers in our pockets and incredible amounts of information at our fingertips at all times, I would have been very skeptical. And yet, here we are. We are very lucky to have almost instant access to knowledge, answers to questions, music, books, and other entertainment with just a few taps on our screens. I love that I can look up directions on how to fix things around the house, build furniture, cook a five star meal, and so much more. The sharing of knowledge via the Internet is amazing. It is also incredible that I can text a friend while she is on vacation with an ocean between us, and get a response within seconds. These are things that the upcoming generation takes for granted, but I can remember when the idea of things like that seemed like science fiction. I remember watching The Jetsons as a kid, and how cool I thought the video calls were. Now I Skype with my grown up kids. Isn't technology wonderful?

Technology has two sides, of course. Sometimes it sucks us in like a black hole. The relative anonymity of the Internet seems to bring out the worst in people. We have lost our patience and want instant access to everything. Who can possibly wait a week to see the next episode in a favorite show? We just find something we can binge watch all at once. We walk around staring at a screen instead of enjoying the world around us. People have caused their own deaths or the death of others because they didn't have the patience to wait until they aren't driving to read a text. And there are so many other things wrong with the way we treat the technology that we have now.

I find myself reaching for my phone so often, to show someone a picture I took, to look something up, to share a thought. While none of those things in and of themselves are bad, it has become almost ridiculous. Sometimes I feel like I am losing my ability to just connect with someone on a personal level. By connecting to everything electronically, have I actually disconnected myself from others? Yes, there are benefits to being able to stay in touch over miles, and to being able to let someone know you are thinking about them when life is too busy for a phone call or a face to face. But something is wrong when I find myself interacting more with my friends online than I am in person. I am talking about friends that only live a few miles away from me. Still, it is so easy, that I get drawn in, and I let myself communicate via Facebook, or texts, and then I wonder why I miss my friends so much. After all, I am in frequent contact with them. But what it really comes down to, which I blogged about last year, is that you can't substitute a screen for the real thing.

Anyone that knows me in more than a passing way, knows that I spend a lot of time on social media. I waste a lot of time on it. This morning I dropped by a friend's house for a quick (and much needed) visit and she mentioned wanting to scale back the amount of time she spends on Facebook. I have had that thought myself, many times, and that thought kept coming back to me throughout the day. And I need to do more than step back from Facebook, I need to help my kids disconnect from their video games and their TV shows and screen time in general. Then it hit me. Doing that wouldn't be disconnecting. It would be RECONNECTING. How much more would I connect with others if I disconnect from the majority of my screen time? What if I get up and go find someone to talk to when I get lonely instead of staring at a screen, hoping someone will notice me? How would it change the lives of my kids if instead of seeing me at the computer when they came in after school, I was ready and waiting to be accessible to them? What if a movie night for family time became a special and rare occasion instead of the norm? How would disconnecting change me? How would it change my family? How would it change my friendships? I think it's time to find out.
P.S. Yes, I am aware of the mixed signal that writing about this on a blog that demands the use of technology to be read, sends. Baby steps.