Being Completely Offline for Several Days - We All Need More of It!!!

This past month I attended a gathering where Phones and Cameras were not allowed, so I was completely offline for several days (as well as EVERYONE around me) and I think we can ALL benefit from the same experience!!!

Preparing to Go Offline

This was more than a long plane ride, vacation, or backpacking weekend where I might be offline for a day or two, or "offline" choosing not to reply to messages that I'm seeing pop up on my phone - this was several days including mid-work week where I'd have NO connectivity!

In 30+ years I haven't been this disconnected, for the first ever I even enabled an "out of office" message in my emails! I've "always" been connected to reply and respond to the needs of family, friends, and customers. This was a total digital blackout, a new experience for me...

Lots of People - No One Connected

The best part of this experience was NO ONE had a phone, laptop, device, or connectivity... So it wasn't just me "choosing" not to read and reply to messages, all devices were securely packed away.

No Interruptions!

The amazing thing was at no time was I or any of the insanely busy and successful people around me distracted by an incoming call, text, email, or personal desire to check-in on social media. We were all 100% vested in solely the conversation with one another and our connection with our surroundings.

Over the past few years, we've all gotten so immune to these digital interruptions that we normally don't think anything of it glancing at our phone mid-conversation, or "excusing ourselves" in the middle of a conversation to "take a call" or "respond to an emergency". We have let being Socially Rude be a norm in our lives these days.

But for this time away, we had no digital distractions or interruptions, what an amazing feeling it was...

No Google!

The funny part was during a conversation we might get stuck on some fact that we would otherwise whip out our phone and do a Google search, but without phones, we found ourselves asking if anyone else could answer our question, that brought in someone else to a conversation than (again) being distracted by the digital device we've gotten accustomed to that usually ended up with the person seeing they have some message they need to read and respond to, and you lose that conversation partner to their device.

But without the device and the digital distraction, along with the potential of ADDING someone now to our conversation, a wonderful experience of good ole human interaction and collaboration...

No Camera, No Video, Just Eyes and Ears

And without a phone in hand (which is also the day-to-day camera), when we were at a show, taking a walk through nature, meeting someone new, the cameras didn't come out to do selfies, record the show, interrupt the flow of things with group pictures...

You watched, listened, experienced, took in the sights and sounds right into our brains and bodies to remember by closing our eyes and recollecting the moment from memory...

News Was Summarized - Not Realtime Live

And again, without a digital device anywhere around, everyone got their news from reading the morning papers that were dropped off each day. There was no "breaking news" with insight coming in from a stream of random unvalidated Twitter comments. By waiting until the morning paper, there was time for a reporter to gather the facts and provide them in a (reasonably) well thought out article.

When realtime news first started a decade ago, I thought it was such a great thing, that we knew what was going on around the world "as it was happening". But a decade later here, I find it more annoying because the first break of this internet news typically comes from 3rd party sources, not an actual eyewitness. Somebody on Twitter would say "they heard that" or some initial report is "it seems like" coming 3rd, 4th, 5th hand. Many times the news is outright wrong and corrected later once the facts are in, so knowing something is happening but without real facts is just a waste of time. Let me know a little later when there's real facts behind the story...

Wrap-up

I have a whole new perspective of the value and benefit of NOT being digitally connected 24x7. It took being offline and integrated with EVERYONE around me also being offline to go back to the days when talking, experiencing, sharing, and collaborating with others is WAY better for relations, relationships, and our overall mental health.

Will see how long this lasts, but since returning, I have eliminated my constant oversight of every email and message I get off hours, and stopped interacting with social media and online news. Working to reset my boundaries so I can be less-connected to all the crap that goes on every day in useless digital conversations, and look to get back to enriching my life in the real world with the people and environment directly around me.

If you get a chance to try being completely "disconnected" some time, do so, it is amazingly refreshing and rewarding...