#Unplugged
Tweeting, liking, posting, sharing, Instagraming all things we do on a daily basis. But what if we stopped occupying ourselves with technology? What if we broke away from the screen and looked up into the beautiful world around us.
In Baratunde Thurston’s story Unplug he describes his experience as he detaches from the digital world, and of how better life is when we take a step back and actually enjoy life. Being that he is the CEO and co-founder of Cultivated Wit, Thurston admitted that during the twenty-five days of being unplug he endured many struggles. Even prior to his disembarkment from the Internet, Thurston elaborates that the more he tried to “ control these data streams, the more I realized that everything is too integrated.”Additionally, Thurston’s journey stresses the importance that if we continue to occupy ourselves with sharing, liking, tweeting or snaping, we forget to appreciate the world around us, which is the main reason why I felt propelled to detach from the Internet.
"Then it hit me. I looked at my phone four bars turned into three, three bars turned into two and soon enough I had no service."
When I read Thurston’s story about how he left the internet it reminded me of the time that I went on a cruise to the Bahamas, where I went five days without internet. On the first day of the cruise I was excited to take pictures of myself on a luxurious cruise just to show off to my friends back home, but little did I know that my life was about to end. As the ship sailed off into the beautiful deep blue sea and the lights of the ship glistened off the water I was having the time of my life. Endless pizza and cheeseburgers, mountains of ice cream. What could go wrong right? Then it hit me. I looked at my phone four bars turned into three, three bars turned into two, and soon enough I had no service. No calling, no texting not even a simple like on Instagram, I was on the verge of a meltdown.
I was panicking as my connection was slowly dying, all I could think about was how I was missing out on all the drama on twitter and what people were saying about my latest Instagram post. I failed to realize that my mom was yelling at me, until she hit me on the back of my head and I fell out of my daze. “What’s wrong with you?” she said. As I began to tell her how my life was ending, she cut me off and said, “Now I have spent all this money on the cruise, and it is not about to be wasted on you crying over Wifi!” I guess I just had to suck it up after all I was on a very beautiful ship. A few hours went by, but it felt like an eternity being that I was unable to be on my phone, although I have to say I did enjoy watching the live musicals and of course the strawberry ice cream.
It was now day two of the cruise which they called it A Day at Sea, since we would not be arriving at Half Moon Cay, until the next day. It was about 8am when I heard the cruise director of the intercom say,“ Were having a wonderful day here at sea come check out the ice sculpting on the lido deck, and don’t forget to stop by the customer service desk to set up you wifi have a nice day!” The only word I heard out of that sentence was Wifi. I hopped out (well fell out since we had bunk beds) of the bed so fast and rushed out of my room to the elevators. “Finally my life will be complete again!” I thought to myself. I waited in line for about an hour and half paid fifty, yes fifty dollars for Wifi, only to be disappointed. This wifi had to be the slowest wifi in the history of technology. For example, I would try to search something on twitter only to be confronted by the loading circle of death! At this point I was over it, I went back to get a refund, and did something no other millennial would ever dare do. Putting down the phone. Putting down my phone probably had to be the best decision I made on the trip.
That same day I met a lot of different people from all around the world and I was able to get on stage with my family to play the Hasbro game show. Now I know what you're wondering, what is the Hasbro game show? Well, the Hasbro game show is a show where people are able to get on stage and play life size board games such as Operation, Sorry!, and my favorite Monopoly. Monopoly was actually one of the games my family got to participate in but it had a slight twist. My family decided to be hat and we had to roll the dice, but on a machine and had to guess the prices of different things. It was almost like the game The Price is Right, except we didn’t win any money unfortunately. I had so much fun that day and thought, maybe I could live with my phone after all?
The next day we arrived at the breathtaking island of Half Moon Cay. The water there is so clear you can see straight to the bottom. Before I even stepped foot on the white sand, I notice that my phone kept buzzing and that’s when I realized that I had a whole two bars on my phone. I was tempted to grab my phone and text, snap, and post but remembered all the fun times I had when I wasn’t on my phone. So, I decided to take a break from my phone and spend time with my family. During my time at Half Moon Cay we had the best burgers, rode on one of those water bikes and I even won the limbo contest! One of my favorite parts during our time at Half Moon Cay was that we were able to swim with the fishes!
The next day we arrived at Nassau,Bahamas. There I was able to journey to the lost city of Atlantis, but between you and me, it was really just a huge resort, but don’t tell people that. The aquarium was stunning there were many types of fishes, sharks and stingrays, and the buildings and water fountains were amazing it felt as if I was in another world. But as life would have it all good things always have to come to an end. And I was back to the technological driven world.
During my time on my cruise without any internet, just as Thurston , it made me realize that I don’t always need my phone to have a good time, in fact being without the internet allowed me to connect more with my family and with everyone on the cruise. As Thurston also stated that “Unoccupied moments are beautiful” which means that like him I need to find time in my schedule to just relax and be away from the Internet. Whether that be taking 30 minutes to an hour break each day or take the challenge just as Thurston did and go 25 days without technology. In part technology is a good thing to have, but it is important to also take a break from it and enjoy life.