This week I bought an adorable stuffed chair for my room. It’s my reading nook chair, and it’s become my command central as of late. I’ve been doing a lot more reading now. Next week I’ll start my second term of graduate school, and it’s been requiring a lot of reading. Not that I mind. I did it because I wanted to become a better writer, and studying other writers is pretty much how you do that. 

So, the last few days, I’ve been sitting here in this chair, reading, and feeling very much like I’m coming into myself. 

Six months ago, I moved across the country to do this, and it’s been pretty much a moving hangover. In the end, it would cost more to bring my stuff out here than most of it was worth, so we did one huge pick up truck load, and trashed the rest. So, now, I’ve had to replace most everything.

The other major change I made is to unplug. The internet, that is. Now, I’m aware that life in the modern world is pretty much impossible without the internet. So, I’ve got it on my phone for things like paying bills and managing bank accounts and what have you. But, beyond that, I’ve gone offline. (I wrote this offline in Word, and sent it to my phone to post via app). 

It’s been refreshing. Easier. I’ve read more. I’ve exercised more. I’ve written more. I’ve even worked more. I’ve always been a little wary of the digital revolution. Not necessarily for Orwellian reasons, although that’s certainly a valid fear. But, there is something unnatural about our cultural addiction to screens. We’ve lost an ability to socialize, to connect, to enjoy nature, and to just generally be…present. 

I know that I’m not alone in my frustration with technology. COVID made us all upgrade our computer literacy skills basically overnight, and those that lagged behind got left behind. In the aftermath, I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think a person should have to use DoorDash or grocery delivery to survive. I think technology as a whole needs to back on off. Let people breathe and live without its constant invasion in our lives. 

I grew up in an era when cell phones were a luxury, a symbol of the upper-middle-class, and even then all they did was call and text in black and white. It was perfectly fine for a household not to have a computer at all. Even in homes that did have computers, many were not connected to the internet. And yet, we lived perfectly full lives. 

I am not saying that technology is a bad thing, or that we should go back to an era when traveling in a new city meant sticking one’s nose into a folded map, and asking random strangers for directions. Life without GPS would have made the last six months straight up hell for me! 

But, I think as a culture, we could learn to unplug a little bit. Take a break from the rapid fire pace of technology. It doesn’t have to be so fast or so digital. Life in analog is beautiful. At least from what I remember anyway….