Unplugging
September 23, 2013
So I know this video has been making the rounds already for a good month, but I couldn't help but think of it today in light of all the chatter around the Louis C.K. clip from Conan on cell phones and my general exhaustion from stressing about our (likely, hopefully) Berlin apartment - not to mention the need to focus on purging and organizing everything we own in preparation for the undoubtedly-ridiculously-priced movers' quote later this week upon evaluating the effort required to haul all our junk up and down stairs and across the country. After getting rid of about half of what we owned before our move over here, I'm rather ashamed to admit that we still have so much, we're going to have to half all our stuff once again. I guess it only makes sense: half the square meters = half the space for all our crap. Oh, how I wish I was one of those minimalists, but I'm just not. I have some tough decision ahead, especially where my shoes are concerned...
And so I am unplugging myself for the next few days in order to tackle everything that is in front of me right now, taunting blog editorial calendar be damned. Hell, I might not even post again until next week. My problem where unplugging is concerned is not only around missing all the amazing, life-changing updates from friends and strangers, but the fear that if I disappear for awhile, I will cease to exist, virtually-speaking. I suppose there's a big difference between falling off the blogosphere for months at at a time and taking a week to focus, and you know - Get. Shit. Done. But you never know, people can be surprisingly fickle, and I think social media only exacerbates this.
What are your thoughts about unplugging? Are you one of those who has a hard time putting the phone down (me, here, guilty!), or do you not even (gasp!) own a smart phone? Do you fear all the things you will miss, or more so, that perhaps people won't actually miss you? Furthermore, do you think there's something to this idea of fearing feeling alone and sad without the comfort social networking provides? Or that we really are all alone, regardless of how many Facebook friends we have?
Update: Apparently the backlash against being constantly plugged in is becoming mainstream. Who knew? Admittedly, I wouldn't have, had I not been plugged in when I said I wouldn't be. Ahh, the tangled web we weave...
Share:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh I can so relate to the moving, purging and ridiculously over priced movers! We sold more than half of our belongings too when we moved here and it almost made me sick how much it still cost. But to answer your question, I, never without my phone and in the endings I have my iPhone and iPad. My poor husband. :-) I am working on limiting my time because I have noticed that I can't just sit still anymore!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the move!
Deanna, I now realize how seriously spoiled we were that my husband's company paid for our move over here, since pricing this out on our own is nearly giving me a coronary. Just gotta forge ahead!
DeleteIt's funny on the phones, as my husband - very anti-Apple products, mind you - always got on my case for always being on mine. Then he gets an iPhone5 through work, and now he's the one constantly on it. They are like crack. I kind of love the idea in the NYT article about coming home and putting them in a container, out of sight. Only problem for us is, with working from home and the blurred lines of 'working hours', it can feel even harder to set these boundaries. Guess we'll have to just holiday on some remote island to really unplug. Darn.
I have never seen that video before. It was really good. It's funny how we have to announce that we are not logging on for a few days or weeks, but we kind of do. That's okay. Living life is always a good idea. I, for one, could spend a full hour just watching my husband's screen saver cycle through old photos. I love looking at old memories, and when you don't shoot photos or videos you cannot look back! I guess it's all a balancing act.
ReplyDelete-Katherine
I know what you mean. It feels weird, but at the same time, when you randomly put out radio silence without explanation as a blogger, your fans/followers/friends are forced to wonder if you have lost interest/changed focus/are dead in a ditch. Granted, not a life or death thing (except being dead in a ditch, of course) in the grand scheme of things, this fragile connection you have with people just over the internet seems to need a little extra fostering, as it's the only way you know some of these people. It's a heck of a lot easier to write someone off who we don't know in real life, whereas lifelong connections like ours don't require that kind of constant contact to know we're still there and still thinking about each other. Kind of ironic, I guess.
DeleteWell I have no smart phone and am not a member of any social network. When I am home I put my mobile away and don't look at it. If somebody wants to reach me, they have to do it via (normal) phone or mail. I am spending way to much time on the internet anyway, even without the whole social networking stuff.
ReplyDeleteWow, good for you! Some days, I dream of shutting down my Facebook account... But then I realize there are so many good things - new friends, great advice, updates from people back in the states I might never have known about - that I would hate to miss out on. There is something to be said for that face-to-face downtime though. I think that balance is key.
DeleteA-ha! we noticed this when we started watching the box set of The Killing...we couldn't multi-task because we had to read the subtitles..mind you, it convinced me I could speak Swedish.. x
ReplyDeleteReading subtitles is hard work, isn't it? You try to focus on what's going on, but then you have to read to keep up... it's exhausting. Probably really good for concentration practice, though. I remember when we watched Intouchables (Ziemlich beste Freunde auf deutsch), which of course was originally in French, so we watched in French - since there was no English option over here - with German subtitles. My head just about exploded.
DeleteI would throw away so much stuff if my husband wasn't sentimentally attached to every piece of furniture and every knick knack. Moving is expensive but I couldn't do it myself. Hiring movers is stressful enough. Read the reviews before you chose a company and even then you have to be careful. We had such a hard time with our move this week. They broke half the things they touched. I am glad I have a blog to rant about it a little bit :)
ReplyDeleteYikes! This is what scares me. I don't want to shell out so much money for movers who just wreck our stuff. I wasn't terribly happy with the movers on this end when we first came over here either - so much better in California! But now that it's on our dime, I'm especially concerned. We're getting rid of A LOT, but we still have some pretty huge pieces - like a gigantic leather sofa, a massive American mattress and five major appliances - that I'm not sure we could try to handle on our own. Wish we could just to avoid the hassle of crappy movers...
Delete