Intentionally Disconnecting

When the sun burns out we’ll light the world with tiny glowing screens.

We live in an increasingly connected world, surrounded by tiny glowing screens, all endlessly vying for our attention. TVs, showing us the latest reality shows about famous people doing yet another hapless task; smartphones, delivering us endless feeds of news from people we vaguely care about; tablets, allowing us to respond to e-mails whilst sitting on the toilet; computers, connecting us to the internet - arguably the single biggest source of connection and procrastination there is out there.

And yet, despite all this, I regularly meet people who feel alone and isolated.

When you look at it, we humans are weird. “How can one be so connected with everything yet feel so disconnected?”

I’m painfully aware that I’m being somewhat hypocritical keeping you here, staring at your tiny glowing screen as yet another notification pops up reminding you that that conversation you’ve ignored for the past two minutes is still going on. But that’s a reason why I’m glad you’re here. The fact you are means that you’re taking a break from those endless feeds of information or the constant pinging of notifications. Hello! Take a deep breath; that message can wait.

I’m guilty of having been addicted to my smartphone. At one stage, I used to call it “my lifeline” — a somewhat ironic façade of being connected to people I thought were interested, whilst actively ignoring those people right beside me who actually cared. I lived in my own little world; surrounded by little numbers in blobs and text in bubbles. It took me a while, but I recognised that this was an awful way to spend my time. I lived for the hollow feeling of productivity I got when I answered an email with “Sent from my iPhone” and a false feeling of connection when I swiped down another screen of photos from that person I used to go to school with but can’t remember their name. I know it sounds cynical and a bit dystopian, but oftentimes it was true.

Our time and attention are the two most important things we take for granted.

Let’s be honest here. I’m pretty sure being that connected doesn’t make anyone happy. Over the past two years, I’ve been closing down my social media accounts as I’ve realised that the people I honestly want to spend time with are the people who contact me directly and invite me down to the pub — not the ones who Like photos I post to Facebook. And so I’ve made the conscious decision to Go Light.

Intentionally disconnecting has given me a lot of time to think about things. Some of these things are pretty obvious; others not so. Going forward I’ve decided that I will share this journey; where I’ve come from, what I’ve learnt so far and where I hope to go. Feel free to pop back on your own volition.