Today, I got into the car and on the way to pick up a take-out order, I discovered I had left behind my cell phone. I was reminded of this fact when I looked at the center console screen and it read: "No cell phone found." There was instant, organic feeling of panic for just a moment accompanied by the thought, "Oh no! I've forgotten my phone!"
This discovery and these thoughts were immediately followed by "So what!" and I began to realize that forgetting it was not a bad thing. Actually, it was a good thing. I had left behind my 21st century intrusion and life modification device, and all was going to be just fine. Why did I react with these notions and the reaction of "Oh No!"?
It was in these moments and all moments like them, I am reminded of just how successful Silicon Valley and the Techno-Optimists have been able to market and condition all of us with the notion that "We must be connected at all times, 24 hours a day."
I was additionally reminded of another equally important fact: "I control my life. I can choose to leave my technological-intrusion device when I CHOOSE to do so. It is not a blasphemous act. It is not an act of the Luddite. The world and my world is not going to end. Despite the techno-optimist babble and blather, I am not irrelevant nor left behind without that infernal mechanism of beeping, chirping, and ringing.
Perhaps, without that thing connecting me to the intruding world outside and beyond my immediate one, I am perhaps at that moment closer to just being and living than ever.
I have to add a final technological note of disclosure...I have have already turned off all notifications on my cell phone. This has been liberating and has no negative effect on my work or life. I am in charge of my device. I check my messages, email, and even the news when I CHOOSE. What's more, I've learned that this works fine. Rarely do any of these intruders of my life and my thoughts require immediate attention despite what the techno-optimists and marketers say.
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