As I wandered around New York last weekend, I noticed a decrease in white earbuds and a sharp rise in clutched smart phones among my fellow travelers. (At least they weren’t driving, but walking in NYC is increasingly precarious.) Still, having shut the lid on my laptop for the day in order to take in the lovely afternoon sun and street sights, I began to wonder why I didn’t make the technological separation permanent. How much of the world was I missing while fixated on that ever-blinking cursor? That was it! I was going to unplug and write a book about it–on paper! Those hours spent in daily email and IM conversation would be newly available to me. Maybe I could even get Brian on it for the “He’s plugged in/She’s dropped out” angle. We could get a book deal!
One block and a few cleansing breaths later, I regained my grasp on reality. What was so romantic about life without Google? Would I want to research a book with only the materials of my local library at hand? Did I really want to lose my connections to all the amazing people I communicate with regularly, but only virtually? Would I actually see more in the real world without my technology, or is technology the tool that actually allows me to connect more deeply with the world around me?