UNPLUGGING
For several weeks, no actually, for several months, I have told myself to exert discipline when it comes to the time spent looking at screens. Can anyone else relate to this? When I think of the accumulated hours wasted, yes wasted, scrolling up, down, back and forth through social media accounts, along with playing ridiculous iPhone/iPad games (Candy Crush and Spider Solitaire), simply shaking my head at myself lacks a certain sense of remorse.
Thank goodness (yet, again) for girlfriends. The other evening, four of us ladies gathered around a fifth's kitchen table, chatting, laughing and clipping out inspiring pictures, ideas and notions for 2020 vision boards. Friday evening's gathering produced in me a new sense of dedication. Vocalizing one's own fears/insecurities/desires (especially with those meeting for the first time) really does help! Being in a safe setting (i.e. a girlfriend's kitchen) removes all sense of shame. Telling a stranger some of your worst habits has quite a cleansing effect. Not only are alternatives pointed out, but you learn of how others deal with the exact same problem. As I so appreciatively learned five years ago, it is such a relief to know you are not alone with a particular experience.
My cure for incessant screen time and scrolling presented itself: leave technology in the living room at the end of the day. Plug it in, charge it up and put it to sleep for the night ... somewhere other than where I sleep. Whether the device is completely turned off, or silenced, or put into airplane mode depends upon how badly I need to keep the connection with my children available for those 8 hours. I suppose turning off Wifi and shutting down data would stop everything except telephone calls coming in. It is a phone after all, and my children should be able to call their mother any time of the day or night.
Last night, I put the plan into action. The iPhone went into airplane mode and sat quietly all night on the hallway table. All computers were shut down, too. I do admit to having to set my alarm on my iPad, but had first turned off Wifi and deleted all possible distractions (Facebook, Instagram and games). Today I should pop down to the thrift shop to find a good, old-fashioned alarm clock. Afterwards, I read a couple of chapters of a new book, spurring thoughts for my own memoir draft at the same time. How wonderfully relaxing and thought-provoking (which is really the definition of reading in the first place, isn't it?).
This morning, after rising from a solid night's sleep, I jogged in the darkness because I didn't waste an hour in bed catching up with my screen. I got up, got dressed and got out the door. Sitting at the table having breakfast, after getting showered and dressed, I allowed myself the time to open up the iPhone and see what the digital world around me has been up to in my absence. Besides a notice for someone who wants to check out a jacket I'm selling (from a notice posted on FB), I haven't missed a thing. More time was actually spent scrutinizing my Christmas gift plan and what is still left to do.
Tonight will, most definitely, be a repeat of last night. There is, after all, so much more to enjoy in life than time in front of the screen.
Happy Monday, everyone.
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