So—-
Mr. Technology Aaron Hockett—– or at least that’s what I’m known by right? The irony of that is I have music playing on iTunes, 6 tabs open in my Chrome web browser, my cell phone right next to my keyboard and the house phone right next to that. Needless to say…. I’d say that is a fair view of just my computer desk and just how connected I am.
Many of you know that Easter was this past weekend and from the end of the day on Good Friday, we decided to cut out the noise of technology until Sunday evening which included: TV, DVR, Music, PS3, Desktop Computer, Laptop, Internet, Cell phones, email, twitter, facebook… pretty much all of it.
What that did— was again change my perspective on how we live life. Here’s a couple I took away that I’d like to share.
We don’t need technology to live. We don’t need technology to live. We don’t need technology to live.
Yeah let that sink in a bit.
Our challenge to each other was to focus solely on a couple of things…. interacting with each other and reading books during that quite time of having everything turned off. I can honestly say that life felt more simple and that time with my wife and reading allowed me to retain more of what I read during that time of silence I think than any other time I can remember in recent history. It in a way forced us to communicate through “normal” means of conversation. I remember a time when I think most thought it was taboo to be talking about what you saw on the internet message board or forum…. now it slips into everyday conversation. ”Did you see that comment on Facebook???” “Did you see that video on YouTube???” “Did I forward you that email chain?” etc. etc. etc….
Saturday went by pretty quick as we were on the Church worship team this past weekend and played two services for the evening— but what happened next is what impacted me the most. We had people over for pizza and a game night. What’s funny, is we got the pizza… but then we just sat around talking. I know… weird right? One of the topics was our break from technology and how that was going. It was funny listening to people about it and how we were viewed as I said earlier as “pretty connected”. I think what I enjoyed most about the night is the friendships that were fostered and time spent with each other that won’t be a forgettable experience.
Sunday came…. and our routine usually consists of the following:
- Coffee
- Breakfast
- Meet the Press
- Barclay’s Premier League Football (soccer for us Yanks)
- Surfin’ the web.
Actually listing that stuff out…. that does actually seem kinda pathetic….. huh…. well anyways…. that’s what we normally do. What we did was had coffee, made breakfast together and talked. That’s it!! Quite simple and pretty satisfying too. I guess it’s just funny to take out of the distractions that we face on a daily basis and see how life *could* be like and really when you think about it, that’s what most people are looking for…. genuine, real and authentic life.
My point in this isn’t to demean anyone who does deal with technology on a daily basis (much like myself) but my underscoring in this is how much time do we devote to it, how much time do we give it…. how much does it run us vs. us running it?
Technology has changed how we communicate…. for better or for worse. In this case, I think of how technology has made us more distant from each other. Texting, email or twittering (yes… that is a word old folks) allows us to take a spectators role in life without having to be face to face.
As Catherine and I continue to explore the possibility of moving overseas, if that doesn’t happen…. I think we’re starting to see in pieces what life should be like over here and how we need to live life beyond the norm. Being “off the grid” even for just a weekend sure did put a monkey wrench in some of our friends and families lives by now being able to watch a movie, Blazer game or otherwise communicate with us. We did however make the concession that we would leave our landline available to those who wanted to call us of which it was funny to find out how many people didn’t even know we had one…. but they know now. 
So what does this mean going forward? Who knows. We’re talking about taking Sundays off from Technology permanently just to have a day of actual rest… rest of the brain, rest in our house and reminding us how life should be.
So the conversation doesn’t stop here…. I want people who read this to send me email…. send me twitters and send me Facebook comments. Maybe someone else out there has been thinking about doing this but needed some motivation… well…. here you go.
More later…
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