This wasn’t on purpose. I love my cellphone. It’s a smartphone that’s capable of fetching emails as well as simple internet searches and reading, in addition to calendaring, unlimited contacts and other “media-related” stuff. Along with my wallet and keys, this phone is always in my pocket.
Not the last 3 days. I was trying to make a call before we got into the motor home for our trip to Wenatchee, WA to go camping with my friends from college and my phone was locking up on me, so I set it in a compartment in the truck. And for those of you who know what it’s like loading up the supplies it takes to take 2 toddlers on a 3 day trip away from home, you know how long and arduous it would take to transfer to the motor home. It wasn’t until we were about 10 miles down the road that I was going to have Amanda look up our route on Google Maps on my phone, when I realized that I had left my phone in the truck.
Bummer. I suppose I could have justified turning around and going back to get it, but that was silly because I didn’t really need it. So basically, I didn’t have access to email and the internet for 3 days. It was good for me. I didn’t know or realize how “mentally”, “behaviorally”, and “habitually” I am connected to the internet. It was good for me to experience this 3 day fast. Weird and unsettling, but good for me. It’s not that the INTERNET is bad. My dependency on it is what is unhealthy and why it was so good for me to be away from it for a couple of days.
I wonder if these kind of experiences (intentional or unintentional) help reveal things about our character? I wonder if we ever pay attention to these kinds of things? Do you? Is it worthwhile?
