The Unplugging
Old Habits Die Hard
Listen to the soft whistles in the wind between the budding trees, and tell me: can you sense the sights and sounds of blossoming Spring?
In some moments, I can see and hear the seasonal melodies loud and clear. At other points, my head swims too deep beneath the static noise to realize there was any shift at all.
This mind of mine easily finds itself trapped within the confines of our technological world. Those electromagnetic waves know how to take over, and the depression I spend my days attempting to shake begrudgingly takes center stage. It is not good for me.
How can you blame anyone for being overtaken by the technology dealt our way though?
Between global pandemics and waging wars, most humans feel they have no choice but to stay plugged in, scrolling through the all-consuming news of struggle, strife, and desolation. Politics rarely make things better, while our social states are so opposing, picking any side feels like inadvertent suicide.
Regardless of its dissonance, it’s now felt like there’s been no other life than one with the Internet. Onslaughts of information get served up on a silver platter to an entire world, and since then we’ve all been stuffed full of knowledge, both the needed and the unnecessary.
But see, is there such a thing as too much knowledge? Those no-good, morosely blue days of ours, are they correlated to the amount of time spent staring at a screen?
Initially, I couldn’t imagine that being the case. Is this not what we’ve been put on Earth for, scouring for answers to all of life’s questions? Giving up technology altogether felt unthinkable until the tides turned and left me no choice.
Cracked, broken, and obsolete, the cell phone keeping me so persistently interconnected to the rest of the cyber-world no longer held merit in my life. Since then, my digital reach became limited, purging me of the consistent use of technology, proven to be addictive. Instead, I utilized our world-wide-web for work purposes only and came out alive on the other side.
At first, the solid fear of missing the never-ending influx of info I was so used to took hold of me, upping my angst to intense levels. And yet, with each passing day, it became much easier to live without an enveloping Internet presence.
All the fear and frustration bubbling in my gut boiled down to a slow simmer, quieting itself to allow me the time to look inwards and get a glimpse of the source of all my anxiety.
My eternal angst rearranged itself from monumental to manageable, all due to the accidental breaking of my old cellphone. Hours once spent in the hum of deep static, staring at a screen for all of life’s answers, now hold focus on my spiritual health and the ones I love, allowing me to separate my anxieties from the unruly sides of life and hone in the things I can take action on.
Mind you, the road to perfection is still a long one. Here I am, spitting my thoughts out into the same world wide web I’ve been attempting to avoid. The overtly curious millennial in me can’t seem to wholly dismiss the information the Internet never fails to provide. The only difference between the person I am and the one I once was is a newfound balance in every facet of my life.
The hellish cycle of being chained to every cyber-link has slowed to a crawl. Now I take in digital information with a lot more care and critical thought and a lot less clicking addiction. I no longer allow the mainstream media’s demands to sink my mind between hyper-fixated states of happiness and despair.
Once upon a time, the swift information so readily available at all our fingertips swept me up into a tornado of toxic comparisons, crippling anxiety, and a load of depression even heavier than the one I originally carried.
Thankfully, I now keep the digital realm at a healthy distance in hopes that the world can also turn itself back to a balanced state, one where, with absolute clarity, we can all embrace the sights and sounds of the blossoming Spring.
