Digitally Disconnecting

Last week I wrote about the family and our Easter break in Cornwall. What I didn’t mention at the time was how I’d spent the entire week digitally disconnected, or as I’d left it on Facebook “Adam is Rebooting”. What this meant was, one whole week, no laptop. no Internet, no phone, no iPad, no nothing at all. Question is now, how on earth did I cope?

I have a little line of copy on the banner of this site, proclaiming myself as something of a digital evangelist. What I mean by this, is that I believe strongly in the Internet, that it is a tool for empowering people and that by making use of it productively, can improve peoples lives by a) giving them access to opportunity or b) providing a platform to communicate. Why then would I want to leave it all behind?

The truth is, so far during this calendar year, I’ve been working pretty much nonstop on either the King’s Church Medway project, work in general or another one of the projects that has landed on me and taken up some of my time. Whilst I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it, there has been the inevitable sacrifice along the way, which in this case has meant a lack of quality time with Mrs B and the children.

During the week, I can work whenever I want. By the time I get home, the children are in bed, or are just on their way so I take them up, read Oliver a story and carry on working afterwards until I’ve eventually had enough. This was the same concept that served me so well last year when I was writing in my spare time.I nearly completed a novel which still has a working title of “The Bicycle Man” and been growing virtual mothballs ever since, something else which has also been sacrificed.

Sundays are generally free days, no football, no visiting, no nothing very much, so I’ve been working as and when I can. When Oliver comes in the room and wants something from me, I either have to tell him “No, Daddy is working”, or I have to do what he wants, but apply a time limit so I can get back to what it is that I’m doing - which ultimately isn’t really fair, even if he does get the benefits from the rewards of my time.

With all that in mind, I made the decision to switch off everything. So that whilst we were on holiday and Oliver asked me to play football with him, I could. If he wanted me to watch him as he drew a picture, I could without asking him how long it was going to be until he finished. Of an evening I could sit with Stephanie and enjoy a glass of wine and generally relax.

I realise that my circumstances might sound a bit extreme and they are, I’ve never had anything like it and we’ve kind of adjusted to me being so busy. It has helped that Stephanie has been on maternity leave as the scenario would be much different if she was still working. But the truth be told, being without a phone; didn’t bother me. Being without a laptop, I hardly missed it, ditto for iPad and all the other bits and pieces we (or perhaps I) assume to be necessities of a modern life.

Granted, as a family we still needed to use them. Stephanie used her map application on her phone to direct as we navigated some of the unfamiliar roads. She also checked in on Facebook and uploaded photographs, whilst Mum used to her phone to make arrangements with her sister so that we could meet up.

All in all though, apart from checking my pockets and thinking “I’ve lost my phone!” on the first few days, being without proved to be no hardship. I didn’t tremble and suffer anxiety attacks at being so far away from my Internet enabled gadgets. I didn’t break out in a cold sweat because I couldn’t update my status, or send a tweet in response to something I’d just seen or had just happened!

We never had this conundrum when we were young, we had holidays without such superficial worries that it actually sounds quite ridiculous when you think about it!

So although I still believe in technology and the awesome power of the Internet, I’ve had a lovely little wake up call. That to be able to communicate via the medium of the web effectively, you need to be able to communicate first with your family. To make that a better experience and to enjoy it fully, switch off the distractions, the world won’t stop and there is nothing that can’t be turned on again afterwards.