The feeling of being unplugged
For the first time in a long time, I was completely unplugged for a few days. I don't just mean Internet connection, but also cell phone reception. I really can't think of the last time that has happened. In my daily life, I check my email hundreds of times during the day via my iPhone or laptop. I sleep with my phone under my pillow or on my nightstand because you never know when a server may go down. I am usually connected 24 hours a day and rarely leave the house without my laptop.
After nearly a year of this, I took a vacation up to Northern California and took some of that time to visit some family in Oregon. During that time, I spent a few days up on the South Oregon coast. The only thing there was large trees, rocks, and the ocean. For some reason, I still had a hard time getting used to the fact that I didn't need to keep my phone charged, or didn't even need to keep it on me. When we finally left the house and drove back to connected civilization a couple of days later, I felt dread as the Emails started rolling in - I was afraid of what I may have missed when I was gone.
In the end, the world was still there when I was reconnected and the feeling of dread has subsided. I have been trying to examine what this means.. do I work too much? Do I try to hard? Or is this what life is turning into for people. How do you balance this constant connection, when being disconnected at times is probably the healthiest thing possible in my line of work.
This is something I really need to think about.
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1. Aaron Cicali said:
Dude... we need to go hiking. I can't wait until spring.
Posted on: 10/09/2009
