The Technological Age

Every morning I wake up to my alarm on my cell phone. I sleepily roll over, hit the snooze button and lay half asleep in bed for the next ten minutes before the alarm interrupts my rest again. Then I get on my blackberry, make sure I haven't missed any phone calls or text messages overnight, then check my facebook to see what my night owl friends were up to while I was dreaming. By this time, my husband has usually left for the house, and I get in the shower and start getting ready for work.

When I get out and am almost ready to go, I pour myself a bowl of cereal and sit down in front of my laptop. I check my emails, as it is likely that I would have gotten one or two, update my facebook status if I am feeling so inspired, grab my phone and get going to work. My husband has usually by now sent me my morning text message telling me how much he loves me (he says he never wants me to a go a minute thinking otherwise, and he does an amazing job of showing me in small ways like this). I get in the car, call my husband on my way to work to leave him a similar message, and then focus on getting to work in a timely fashion.

I arrive to work a couple minutes early, get logged into my computer and answer any emails I may have gotten outside of work hours. I check my bank accounts to make sure there hasn't been any strange activity and monitor bills going out and money coming in and our purchases. I read some articles on Digg.com if I have time, and if I don't I get logged into whatever program I need to get my work done and get my day started.

I spend the next eight hours doing various types of data entry, from meeting minutes to entering invoices. I scan to email, make photocopies, send a few faxes, enter invoices, update spreadsheets and send emails, and I blog in my breaks and spare time. By the time five o'clock hits, I am sick of sitting in one place and looking at the same screens for hours at a time. I need a break.

I get in my car and commence the commute home. It usually takes about fourty-five minutes in bad traffic, so I'm waltzing in at just before six in the evening. I get dinner on the table, check on laundry, and then plop myself on the couch, again in front of the laptop. I add pictures to my blogs, check how many people are reading, send out facebook updates, comment on photos and wall posts, and then watch a couple episodes of the television show my husband and I are working on.

I might go work out, but it's more likely that I will pop in a CD and do some vocal warm ups. I'll go run some errands, wait for my husband to get home, at which time we watch TV together and snuggle up on the couch. We might play some card games, have a glass of wine, jam in the living room or do some recording, but our evenings at home aren't very eventful. They are honestly few and far between as our lives have been extraordinarily busy (we're certainly don't have opportunities to sit and watch TV every night). But when we do have down time, we choose to spend our time together doing something that we don't need to engage each other for.

We'll do our final email/facebook checks, and I'll check my blog again or edit a new post, and then we'll go to bed at which time we might tag team a game on my husband's iPhone for twenty minutes or so before checking that our alarms are set and turning out the light. But for the past few days we have had one huge gaping hole in our lives...our laptop is in for service. Our lifeline is gone. No more morning email checks, no blogging from the comfort of my couch, no TV (we don't currently have cable), no facebook, no music, nothing.

We finally had a day off together. We wanted to go downtown and window shop, but upon arriving we found that most stores and restaurants are closed on Sundays, except for those in the mall that we had already explored completely before. We went out for lunch, and then went home and had an exceptionally difficult time just being together, without using our phones and without the internet to occupy ourselves when we got bored or the silence was too much to handle. It was eye opening.

My husband is my entire world. I love him with my whole heart, and there is never a moment that either of us let the other forget that. He is my absolute best friend. So why was it so hard to just spend a day with my best friend? I am the first to complain when life gets in the way and we go three or four evenings without spending real, quality time together, and I finally got that opportunity and had him all to myself and the whole time I was wondering when we would get our laptop back. This seems completely backwards to me.

My husband, myself, and his defective phone

I feel that we, as a society, in this technological age, have become much too dependant on technology. It shouldn't be what drives us. We shouldn't need all of this in order to have a relationship with other people. Quality time shouldn't be in front of a TV screen. I am a bad example of letting fancy gadgets and the internet get in the way of spending actual time. I need to stop wasting my hours on facebook, and spend them doing things. I need to go for more walks, read the newspaper that is at the cafe instead of bringing my laptop or resorting to my blackberry. I need to play more sports, do more exercise, go discover places in this new home city of mine that I have never been. I need to live my life, and not just be another IP address.

The question is...how? All I have ever known is this. How do I leave all these vices that mask themselves as needs and really, truly, freely just be? How would you do it?

What would you do if you were me?

-SP