Thursday, February 26, 2015

A Simpler Life With Limited Technology

As I type this blog post out, I'm watching my favorite uber guilty pleasure show which I will not name because it's a cheesy kids/teen show. It's not new (first season released in 2006 and the last season in 2010) but I like watching it because it's inspired me to live a simpler life with limited technology.

Smartphones (I'm counting from the introduction of the iPhone forward) took off halfway through this series. Social media devotees were jumping from Myspace to Facebook... and Twitter was in its infancy. Netflix was a new thing. Things were moving along in technology but the series didn't move with it. By the time the series ended, there were more social networks, more gadgets, more... well, more things that we have now... yet the series (which centered around a group of high schoolers) didn't. Yes, they had cell phones (even smartphones) and laptops, but they didn't rely on them. In fact, unless they had to communicate with someone immediately (cell phones) or do their homework/research (laptop), these tech gadgets weren't used. Teenagers who weren't attached to their gadgets... ah, the memories from my own adolescent years (1998-2003). ;)

This Lent I've been trying to step away from technology for a simpler life. I've never been much of a phone person so texts can go unanswered for hours. I've been wearing a wrist watch (remember those dinosaurs? ;D) for a couple of weeks now so that I don't have to rely on using my iPod touch to check the time. (Bonus: my watch was the first big purchase I made with my first paycheck out of HS; yes, I've always been practical.) I try to drain my iPod touch so that I am not constantly checking Twitter, IG, FB, and email. I do use my iPod touch during prayer time (I use the iPieta app for The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary) but even this will eventually get phased out when I can afford the physical Little Office book.

I still rely on technology to talk to friends (as I had previously discussed in my Social Media and Lent post a couple of days ago) but it's different now. My bestie and I aren't social media slaves these days but we do take some time out of our days to catch up (she's been an amazing help while I've been going through my depression and double toothache double whammy days). Some days we message back and forth because we'll both busy ourselves with other things offline and it can take hours to check messages. It's been a good balance that has actually helped some of my friendships in great ways.

Technology isn't bad... but I think many of us are too overly attached to our gadgets. I include myself in that statement because I've been too attached to my iPod touch in the past. And to think that all of this wanting to live a simpler life was inspired by a cheesy teen show. Yep.

Anyway, just some thoughts for the day since I know I haven't blogged in a couple of days. Double toothache and depression has made some days harder than usual... and I really try not to be online when I'm having those kinds of days. :)

I hope you're all having a good Lent thus far. :D

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

3 comments:

Sonia said...

Best wishes Emmy

Knuckles McMason said...

It's okay... you can admit that it's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Melissa Cecilia said...

Tim - Ewww. I really hated that show... as well as their sequel, Suite Life on Deck.