Off the Grid

As pathetic as it may seem, I told myself that for six full hours I wouldn't use any form of social media. I cut out all of the Internet to reduce my temptation, and I put my Blackberry on silent and stashed it under one of my pillows. 

On instinct alone I must've tried to check either my computer or my phone a dozen times. It was eating away at me, what was I missing that was going on. Some might interpret this level of reliance as "an addiction" or a step in the wrong direction, but is it really that unhealthy to want to be socially connected? After all, on the other side of that technology, it's living breathing human beings with real emotions, that we've forged bonds and friendships with. Social media simply provide the channels and the conduits for us to communicate with one another. People didn't travel more than 7 miles from their birthplace before the invention of the printing press and nobody seems to yearn to go back to those days. Why can't we embrace this new technology for what it is, not "big brother", not "the matrix", just an easier way to reach and communicate with one another.