It was scary math. Sobering math.
In our house we spend roughly $1680 for two smart phones a year, and roughly $2040 a year for phone, cable, internet and wifi a year. And that does not currently include any children's cell phone costs (one is out of the house, one is still too young). That is a staggering amount of cash just to be abstractedly and continually connected... to stay in touch with everyone while actually not having to touch anyone at all.
Beyond the actual dollar amount cost to pay for these modern conveniences, I couldn't help but also think about the great cost these devices and means cost each of us individually, as a family, as friends, as a society overall. It's all rather staggering... rather unsettling if you really stop and think about how unconnected all of this "connecting" actually has left us all.
Is being instantly connected at all times to all things and all people really all that great? It sure is! I'll be the first to raise my hand and profess my absolute love of social media and smart phones and laptops and instant access and emojis and hashtags galore. There are great, huge, awesome benefits to all this instant connection.
But I do know all this has come at a great cost.
We've stopped looking up and around while we sit looking down at our devices. We've stopped seeing the world in reality and in real time while we sit and watch others lives with all their staged and painted perfections and dramas through our devices. We've stopped the personal interaction of board games and turning pages in actual books while we sit playing video games and reading books and articles on our devices. We've stopped talking to each other, hugging each other, being near each other, as we text and email and chat with each other on our devices.
We fork out a hefty price both from our wallets and from our souls for all this great and instant connection... We have somehow allowed ourselves to justify it, to become numb to it, to be honestly ok with it all. And honestly, that actually isn't ok at all. But I am just as guilty as everyone else. I don't want to give it up, I don't want to navigate my life, or my family's lives in a society and time without it.
I love knowing where my kiddos are. I love getting (and sharing) pictures and updates documenting the good, the bad, the ugly. I love using the tools of technology to share my story, fuel my passions, enhance the things I love most. I love online ordering. I LOVE online ordering.
But I know I'm addicted to it. We are ALL addicted to it. We are all helplessly caught in the life filling, soul sucking instant gratification that comes from the modern conveniences of all this grand technology, that brings the entire breadth of the world instantly into our tiny homes and to the very delicate tips of our fingers in an instant.
I can wake up and tell myself I will not get caught up looking at my phone all day. I'm not going to log on. I'm not going to scroll. I'm not going to put anything first in front of my family and the work I need to get done. I will vow to put all my devices down and completely embrace and immerse in everything and everyone around me... and then either everyone around me is completely immersed in their own devices and completely ignoring me, or that one email comes in, that one update just has to get posted, that one photo just has to be taken and shared... and before I know it, I've picked it up and all those little notifications pop up and I just can't help myself but click and check and swipe and share and read and... and... and...
I throw my hands in the air and simply ask myself how I can live in this time and age of instant digital access, while still being instantly accessible on an entirely fully vested personal front? How do all of us live in the tension between the need and desire of balancing both the fully digital world and our fully personal lives? I want to steer this pendulum well, but find I'm merely just failing miserably at both ends.
I don't want to mandate this to be a call to action to completely purge all my electrics and vow to never log on or pick up a cell phone or touch a computer or remote control again. But I do hope it ignites a call to awareness, a call to moderation, a call to a more balanced change in lifestyle.
An exchange of less to more. Less electronic connection, more personal connection. Less digital media overload, more personal interaction explode. Less online numbing, more in person engaging. Less time looking down, more time looking for. Looking for opportunities to give, to serve, to see into, to love, to share, to grow, to react, to explore, to adventure. Looking for the mountains and fresh air, the streams and prairies, the wildlife and campfires, the natural sunsets and sunrises that God blesses this beauty filled natural world all around us with each and every day.
I long to be able to simply be equally connected technologically and relationally. I want to figure out the fine skill of using the amazing connection tools I have at my every beck and call, at the very tips of my fingers at all times, to somehow bless and write and share and love to the best of my ability through the avenues and means in which is most beneficial. May I simply take the initiative to drop the note, the message, the hello, the text, the email... to see, to hear, to encourage, to check in, to support.
But may I also know the time and place to put it all down, set it all aside, and simply walk away from the suction and the addiction. May I cleanse my life, my days, my hours, my inner cells more and more each day, making and taking the time for rest, for growth, for one-on-one, technology-free uninterrupted time in personal interaction and conversations.
I pray that the old soul within me can simply work on venturing back home, back to that place of peace I once lived in day-in-and-day-out, long ago before the smart phones, before the tablets, before the gaming entertainment centers, before the great big world wide web of instant everything. I don't want to give it all up... But I do know I need to scale it back tremendously. I want everyone in my house to scale it back tremendously. I want everyone around me to scale it back tremendously. And not for my sake... for theirs.
I want the generations that have never known a time before all of this to be able to seek, to find, to feel that great peace within the without as well.
May we all find an inner peace with hands that can remain idol, brains that can be stimulated by mere beauty and nature alone, by hopes and dreams that can be grown and fanned by personal relationships and natural interactions. Can we all be a little more organic, a little less obsessed, a little less all put together on the outside, and a lot more real and authentic on the inside?
May we all weigh the true costs and burdens of keeping connected. May we all decide what its real worth actually is within us. May we stop cashing in the expensive chips of digital connection over the great savings of protecting our delicate souls beside the expectant and waiting hearts of those around us, of our family, of our friends, of our very selves.
May we all scale back tremendously, look up expectantly, and receive simplicity of natures blessings daily and abundantly.
{Next Blog Post "Almost There" HERE }
{ Previous blog post "Turning Twenty" HERE }
No comments:
Post a Comment