Spend "Real" Time at Home

After considering it further, I realized that most people are not going to stop abusing technology. At least not in the near future. Until there is evidence out there along with ways to make technology truly work for us, we’re not going to give it up. I stick to my idea in that we should learn to better use and not abuse. However, to start, how about simply taking a break from technology from time to time? Like with the change of seasons, we could take at least a one week break from our email, our MP3s, our HDTVs and all the other tech savvy critters that have come into our life. We take vacations from work and school, yet we never truly let it go like we should (and used to). Perhaps this is why the Europeans are so much happier and healthier than us Americans? We need to take a first step and resolve to start with taking a true vacation. Maybe you can only afford to start with one a year and maybe you can’t go far. Or start with dedicating one weekend per month to turning off all the technology in the home. The bottom line is we need to start somewhere for our families and social well-being within the real world.

There are multitudes of articles and research out there showing the negative impact of bringing home work. Go ahead, do a Google search. You’ll see what I mean. Consider how much more now that corporate America brings home their work than compared to before. Why? Easy. Technology. It is like our PCs and Blackberry’s tell us to – after all, isn’t that why we have both of those – to work?

I think I was inspired to write this as I have just spent roughly a week away from work and technology. Part of that week wasn’t by choice, but in the end, it got me to think about how great it would have really been if I had a week to myself without having to check in at work or checking someone’s status on Facebook or writing an email back to someone. I had a glimpse of it, though I won’t say that I didn’t write a few quick emails or let friends know I was under the weather. I did. But I also had a lot of time to think, to read (an actual book!) and to write in my journal (you know, with pen and a paper). I came close to busting out the photo albums, but I didn’t make it quite that far. And as I write this blog post, I am thinking of how great it was! I didn’t even think about my job, which is pretty huge for me. I have nightmares about my job…

In a nutshell though, it made me see that I need to spend more time actually doing things with my husband and our cats. We used to bowl almost every Friday night – I can’t recall when we did that last. We have a list of restaurants that we want to try out and review in the FM area. Thanks to technology (and probably a little of the school stunt by yours truly), we’ve made it to one place. There is so much more to do, even in Fargo in the winter. And yes, I know how valuable the time in front of the TV set is for bonding as well as having the ability to go to our own little world’s every now in then (AKA as the Internet in my home). I resolve though to bring back in home life too and once finals wrap up in two weeks, you better believe my husband will be bowling in an alley instead of using a Wii remote.