Disconnecting

I was born in the Nintendo age. I remember cassette tapes (we had a record player but used the cassettes more). I remember life before mobile phones and I have watched cell phones go from text book size with no cameras or texting to iPhones with Words with Friends. I was alive before the internet and I remember when we first had AOL trial minutes on CDs. I played Oregon Trail and Math Munchers on 3x5 floppy disks and had to look up books in the library with the Dewy Decimal System (index cards). And here I am posting a blog on the world wide web about me for anyone in the world to read.

I have facebook, twitter, instagram, google, and map applications all at my little finger tips. I can tell you any piece of random information, look up how many people are in the same location as me at any moment in time, and I can send you a picture or video of what I am eating/listening to/hanging out with at any second of my life.

Having an iPhone and keeping up with the latest technology is a choice. Status updates and instgramming are a choice. Sometimes I can't put my phone down, even if I know facebook hasn't changed in the past 10 seconds. Being 'addicted' to technology and phones is a real thing. (seriously, they are trying to get it into the DSM!)

Josh and I enjoy hiking and taking trips to get away from all this technology. We have one rule, cell phones are for pictures only while on hikes and NO internet until we get home. He gets mad when I instagram a picture from our adventures while we are still out. But I feel this strange compulsion to do it. We have some strange urge to let the world know everything as soon as we do it. Why? Why do we think we are all so important and people are just waiting by their screens to see what happens next?

Technology is not ever going to go away, but the way we handle and view it can change. I know that I am on facebook and instagram WAY more than any normal person should be. And since I can not be trusted with an iPhone I am changing my ways. Yesterday, on Amazon, I ordered this phone:

And I am selling my iPhone 4 (e-mail me if interested) and really trying to 'get back to basics' with how much I post and check the internet. I have lived before the iPhone existed and I am pretty sure I can do it again. But I am not going ALL out here - I am selling my iPhone and getting a Kindle Fire, this way I can still have the internet (we only have one laptop and Josh takes it to school) and an e-reader for convinces. When Josh and I both get rid of our iPhones our cell phone bill will be cut IN HALF! I'm not even kidding, these smart phones are not very savvy on the wallet. A tablet is a one time cost, no monthly fees. Also a tablet is small enough to carry on my person, but large enough that I will not be on it every five seconds and carrying it in my purse as I would a phone. I will be pleasantly disconnected at a comfortable level. I am trying to get back to being a 'normal' private person. Who really cares what I bought at the grocery store this morning?! (yes, that was a self burn).