Digital Disconnect: Isolated

Have you ever left your phone at home with a long day ahead of you? Thinking to yourself about how you’re going to figure out directions? What you will listen to in the car? How you will let your friend know when you get there? In my opinion, being connected to technology has its benefits and burdens. Being alone for prolonged periods of time while I run errands, cooking, working out, and more, is not something I’m used to, but something I should get more comfortable with. In this day and age and especially with my generation, I think this is an unspoken struggle a lot of us deal with. Since the 90’s, the use of technology has only increased and taken over many things that used to be done manually- yes, there were times where people used to wait over one week for a picture to develop. Now? It’s at our fingertips, instantly. This is very convenient and useful, right? Does it ever get scary to you, like it does to me?

While digitally disconnect-ing, I found myself thinking a lot about whether technology is truly more beneficial than harmful. I came to the conclusion that this topic could vary from person to person and topic to topic. Initially, for this project, I found the need to overfill my day with stimulating and time consuming activities. Why was it so hard to stay interested and give my full attention to everything in the beginning of the day? Why was I so tired by the end of it? There were many questions that came to mind when I relive the day in my head, some with answers, some without. Unfortunately, having come to the realization that being isolated is a concept that worries me makes me realize how embedded my daily life is in with technology and the Internet. This makes me wonder if this will become the new normal… Will I look back at this post ten years from now and laugh at how I thought my life was ruled by technology? Maybe. But maybe this will all get too much one day, and some people will disconnect forever. I already know of one person who has entirely disconnected, whose job was through social media. Maybe we’ll all end up like him one day, and truly live our lives without wanting to post about it, or getting involved in everything.

Throughout the ‘disconnect-day’, I was noticing things I had never done a double take on, time seeming to slow down, noticing things in stores that I’ve gone to multiple times, feeling lonely. The need to update my friends immediately sometimes made me wonder what we would talk about at dinner if I truly didn’t think to keep it to myself until dinner. In our time, we could get on social media, check a couple hashtags, and that would be a new conversation. Being so tethered to the idea of communication with everyone and every topic possible being at the tip of my fingertips was always soothing, but also distressing. Never unplugged, always working. Always occupied, never resting. So many people have become accustomed to paying attention to everything but themselves, including myself, in such a bad way that this leads us to become afraid of face-to-face interactions or that “awkward-silence” everyone is so scared of. So, what? So what if you have been sitting there for one minute with nothing being said? Will your phone save you from the silence? Will your phone, save you?