I really wish I had been an adult back before like the craze of the internet and I KNOW there are ways that that would have sucked. I understand that.
But I keep coming up against this wall of like, I remember being a CHILD and not having the internet in my pocket and only having access to it sometimes, but I also don't remember what I spent my time doing. Reading or something? playing? probably right.
Now as an ADULT when I think about spending less time on devices and the internet and social media I just find myself thinking... okay, what do I do now? That might sound pathetic and of course I do have non-internet hobbies, I've gone off grid camping for weeks at a time before, but when you're camping it's like there's things to do that must be done so you can survive like setting up shelter and putting food away properly etc.
The answer is probably just to put my phone down and see where my mind leads me and idk why that feels hard. Again, not like I don't do phone-less things from time to time but it's the idea of existing as an adult in the world without a phone at all. What is that like? I don't know. I think there's a lot of dimensions to it I don't fully understand.
There's also the social piece of it. Everyone AROUND me is ALSO on their phones. If I put mine down and try to engage with others, it's sometimes difficult. My friends are already sometimes annoyed that I'm not on snapchat anymore where they still post updates and send messages. It makes me feel disconnected from them, but they don't want to go to the effort to separately text 1 friend to keep her up to date. And the never ending problem of mine that local events and businesses seem to ONLY post on social media. Lots of local businesses don't even have a phone number to call anymore, they just say "DM me on instagram!" and half of them don't have a separate website. When I'm off social media sometimes the only way I hear about local events is from friends who are still on it messaging me and asking if I want to go. I don't like that! They just locked us in! My husband has a similar problem where all his local hobby interest groups are on facebook, and if he really wants to see what's up and get together with people, he has to use it.
I guess what I'm saying is I wish that it was more optional to exist off social media and the internet. I'm still trying to find a way to navigate it. As an adult I have never lived in a world without it and I think there is something missing from that experience. I wish I knew what it was.
At the start of every year I try to pick a word for the year that sets my intentions for it, and I find it really fun and useful. I sometimes set goals too, and I find it exciting to set them even when I don't meet them, because it allows me to reflect on what's important to me and whether or not it remained important to me. A contender for my 2026 is "offline." Maybe if I want to know what life is like when I'm not logged in, I need to spend more time logged out.
