Project Kengikat

Technology Off

// June 20th, 2010 // Me Time, Social Networking

It’s Sunday, a little after 7:00PM and this weekend has been about being disconnected from being so connected. It seems that I spend a great deal of time online doing things for other people and keeping up with online friends which in turn leaves almost no time for me.

It’s almost been a month since I placed a video on my YOUTUBE channel and at first I was logging on every other day to approve channel comments and what not, but that stopped the very first week. I figured if people really wanted to keep up with me, see how I am doing or just shoot the shit, they would do a few things, call, read my blog or message me on FACEBOOK. The first week there were about 10 people who checked in to say hello and as of last week there were only 7 and this past days it has gone down to 4. I guess you can call this out of sight out of mind friendships, but it is what it is and life will go on.

Friday I took a break from FACEBOOK and closed my TWITTER account, I am not even sure why I had a TWITTER account and to be honest I am starting to question why I have a FACEBOOK account as well. It seems society has become people who only exist online. Social networking has made it easy for us to create friends that only exist online. God forbid there is some strange sort of events and no one is able to get online, text or any of this for months. What would people do?

The other day I sat down and I wrote a hand written letter to a friend who lives in Chicago. He received it and was blown away that I had taken the time to write him and then put in in an envelope and mailed it to him. He joked saying he couldn’t recall the last time a friend wrote him instead of emailing. There was once a time when you got a letter from a friend or family member and this meant so much, but now we just email each other or meet up online. There are people we even have dated online, family reunions online……everything online.

So my weekend was about being old fashioned, actually calling my friends to talk, making time to hang out and see each other face to face. Other then the news, the TV was off and more the 90% of my weekend was spent away from home, away from the computer and my cell phone was off. The world didn’t end and I had a great time just being in the real world with real people doing real life things TOGETHER!!!.

Now I am not saying that social networking is bad and should be done away with. Nope not at all. I have made some really cool friends using social networks, friends that I know are solid and in my life for the right reasons. My time away from YOUTUBE and even this weekend away from FACEBOOK has shown me this. Social networking is great and you can meet some really cool people, but ask yourself this. When was the last time you had dinner with friends from where you live? When was the last time you went on a date with someone from where you live? When is the last time you went to the beach, went bike riding and besides sleeping and the time you’re at work, when is the last time you were not online? Some people can even be online at work, so they are never offline.

I spent my weekend hanging out with Dodger, being outside, walking, making ceramics, making plans for my “living quilt” as well as a few other projects I want to work on. I was able to make some solid contacts with people right here where I live to help me reach my goal of making 600 hygiene kits for people who are homeless and people with HIV or AIDS.

I had a great weekend and social networks were not at all a part of it. Real life people in my real life were and it was awesome. So I am making some changes to my “online” presence to one that requires me to be present in the real world more then 95% of the time. Again, if people are truly my friends they know how to reach me, but if they are only “online” friends then I will see them when I am online.

You can’t see a laugh, feel an embrace from a friend or loved one, you can’t watch an awesome sunset, walk on the beach, or really enjoy the awesomeness that all this world has to offer by always being online. You have to get out and live life to the fullest and make being online something that you do when you want to, not something you do when you want to see your friends, family or loved ones.

“Technology Off” is something I am going to be doing a lot more of.