In the days when I wore a pager for work, I worried about the ways technology could seep into every moment and struggled with how to turn off my accessibility.
When I was a teenager, I simultaneously marveled at the idea of a mobile phone while wondering why someone would talk in the car on a hot box approaching the size of a loaf of bread. Why can’t you wait until you get home? Is it that important?
Though like every teenage girl, I enjoyed call waiting, part of me wondered why we’d eliminated the good ol’ busy signal. If it was important, wouldn’t they call back? And either way you sliced it, didn’t taking the call on the other line tell the person you were already talking to that they weren’t important enough?
Over the years, Michael teased me good-naturedly for my lack of interest in technology’s ways. I was a luddite, a late adapter.
It took me years to get on Facebook in spite of the prodding of several close friends (you know who you are). I thought Twitter was the biggest waste of 140-anything I could imagine.
I still dig in my heals on this stuff. I got on Pinterest a month or so ago because I thought that, as a blogger, I probably should. I’ve looked at it less than a half dozen times and still don’t have the energy to figure out what I’m doing, as anyone who’s checked out my meager boards can attest.
I’m not yet on Instagram or Tumblr or whatever else is new that I’ve not heard of. I am steering clear of my phone’s recent updates.
Of course technology is also a gift in my life because look, here we are together in this place that’s become one of my greatest joys. This internet world is where I meet with you, one of the places I experience community with soul brothers and sisters (some of whom I’ve had the opportunity to meet, touch and hear in person, to say “friend” face to face just like we do in words across screens).
But I do fear technology’s pull and its compartments. The sticky tentacles of modern day discontent that one of my readers described as the common belief that something good is out there — just one more click away.
I worry about the ease with which I can live in distraction, compulsion, false connection. I do not like how easy it is for me to respond with a swipe or keystroke in search of approval.
As I live right here, I am paying more attention to the imagined urgency that technology brings to my everyday moments. When I don’t want to feel boredom, sameness, the alone or the still, the world in my phone beckons, and it is just a palm away.
When I don’t want to feel or think or be, I can look to be filled by that pixellated beauty, by those words, by that comment.
Searching for significance and to feel any other thing than what is right here.
_________
Maybe, this pricks your heart like it does mine. Yeah, it’s painful talking about the deeper hungers beneath this stuff. Tomorrow, I’ll explore a little further the false filling of technology and what we might still be hungry for. I hope you’ll be back.
___________
This is Day 22 of Right Here. Throughout October, I’m joining with a community of bloggers (linking up with The Nester) — all of whom are writing each day of the month about a topic of their choosing. To find all posts in 31 Days of Right Here, click here, or see the listing below.
To continue receiving these daily words, subscribe to this blog on the sidebar at left, click here to Like Draw Near on Facebook or follow me on Twitter @AshleyMLarkin. I am immensely grateful to share the journey with you.
POSTS IN THE SERIES
An introduction: Welcome to 31 Days of Right Here
Day 1: For You, Too
Day 2: Fear’s Invitation
Day 3: My Portion
Day 4: Five Minute Friday – Write
Day 5: Rise and Shine
Day 6: My Joys Mount As Do the Birds
Day 7: A Mother’s Fierce Love
Day 8: When Life’s A Mad Rush – How To Slow Time
Day 9: The Fight For Right Here Told Through Two Tales of Epic Whining (Part I)
Day 10: The Fight For Right Here Told Through Two Tales of Epic Whining (Part II)
Day 11: Five Minute Friday: Ordinary
Day 12: When Right Here’s A Mess
Day 13: O God, We Thank You
Day 14: The Date That Almost Wasn’t
Day 15: One Thing That Makes Us Human
Day 16: That We Might See And Remember
Day 17: In Which I Hit A Wall
Day 18: Five Minute Friday: Laundry
Day 19: When You Can’t Hold All The Moments
Day 20: Let Me Walk In Beauty
Day 21: Tend This Seed
Day 22: Just One More Click Away
Connecting through the power of stories written, spoken and lived
Ashley, I can imagine how this was NOT the easiest thing to talk about. (I know you, many of us do, and know there’s nothing of a criticism of anyone in it.) I think this is actually an immensely important topic – it has so much to do with our Lives – our every day – our presence – our relationships – our tendency to leave who we Are, where we are and who we’re with to go – somewhere, anywhere, else. I fully cop to being your luddite mama – the one with my cell phone never far from me :-/ – so maybe you can chalk some of what I’ve said up to that, but still…there is something rather important to take notice of here and maybe even ponder. :) Thank you Ash! xox
So much yes: ” it has so much to do with our Lives – our every day – our presence – our relationships – our tendency to leave who we Are, where we are and who we’re with to go – somewhere, anywhere, else.” Ugh. May we have eyes to see and intention and will to walk differently.
Dear Ashley
I am worried with all the new technology that seems to develop every day! I am so concerned about all the job losses technology causes. In South Africa we have a big people with unemployment. In the past you went into a bank to withdraw money at a cashier, now you draw at an ATM, etc.
Blessings XX
Mia
You bring up another important point, Mia. :(
This is so right on and this topic deserves my attention. My phone, especially, can be such a distraction from my everyday LIVING. In fact, sometimes I long for the old days, where my phone was just a phone. Oftentimes, I intentionally leave my phone behind, so I can experience fully the moment. But inevitably, I’m wishing I had my phone to capture that moment in picture or video. Or I just have to see how many “likes” my photo on Instagram has gotten–82 times the day I post it. Applying the principle of moderation, I must keep social media and screen time in general, in balance with the right here, right now of my life. Thank you, thank you for sharing your thoughts on a topic that is so relatable and the conversations so relevant.
Thank you for your honesty here, Sis. How I relate!
Oh, friend, I feel like you are reading my mind, speaking my heart. Yet another post that confirms why you feel like “soul sister”. I, too, resist technology- still haven’t ever browsed Pinterest, don’t do Instagram, think I was the last woman in the world to finally get on Facebook. I always said “I just want to be with people face to face!” And, yet, if it weren’t for this crazy online world, I wouldn’t have met you- or so many other beautiful friends. And so, I understand your angst and your struggle. And, yes, the lure of the “likes” and the search for affirmation in blog posts, the constant distraction from my “real life”, the way that this online world can suck my attention away from the living breathing ones that are right there in front of my face- it’s scary and discouraging. Yes, I get it. And I’m thankful that you’ve put your thoughts on the page. Keep writing bravely, friend. Love from my REAL living-breathing-seeking world to yours!
Yes, you are indeed my soul sister. I love this, Alicia: “Love from my REAL living-breathing-seeking world to yours!” Amazing that through this angst-filled, scary, discouraging, frustrating social media world are also the gifts of friendships like yours. I am blessed. And I love you back!
This speaks to my heart & daily struggle, especially since getting my first smart phone 4 weeks ago. I really miss the world before texting & internet…specifically, when people communicated over the phone or in person! I realize we can’t turn back the change in society, yet we must work to find balance in our own lives.
Yes to balance (and yes to yearning for the old days). May we never forget the meaning and value of real life in the flesh connecting, and may we continually find ways to teach that to our children in this modern world.
I am here reading you, dear Ashley…nodding with each little bit that I read. I hear you, I see you – I love you. And what an honor to be one of those people who actually got to hug you without a screen between…
Embraces and so much love.
“I hear you, I see you — I love you.” Goodness, what words would any of us rather hear? I can think of none. Love you, friend. Someday we shall squeeze in person again.
Thank you!