Lost connection.

For the first five days that I was in my apartment, I didn't have Internet. It was a shocking revelation. 

I have an addiction. A dependency, if you will. Yet what I found more intimidating is how dependent our entire world is on the Internet today. We have found a means to connect to anyone, anywhere instantly; we are certainly not going back to the days of handwritten letters. 

I am one of those people that leaves my MacBook on at all times. I have my iPhone practically glued to my hand. It was truly frightening to feel how painful it was reaching for my laptop to answer an email and realizing that I simply couldn't.  

I drove to several cafes and Starbucks to complete some necessary tasks--but it oftentimes felt like reaching wifi was a matter of life and death. It's always scary to realize how completely attached you are to something, to know that you cannot function normally without it. 

Yet the Internet and technology is not something we can break away from. It has become embedded into every aspect of our society. We need it to work, to live, to breathe. 

But for those few days that I was unplugged, it was also relaxing. It was calming to know that I could just focus on moving in and spending time with my mother. As much as my anxieties about loose ends plagued me, I found that taking a technology break was most needed. 

While I could try to promise to make myself unplug more often, I am choosing to realize that it's impossible. What's needed is more of a balance--not completely unplugging, but choosing to be in the present. I don't need to be on my laptop everytime I watch a movie with friends or answer a text the second I receive it in a meeting. 

The Internet is an irreplaceable tool. It shouldn't be an addiction. We must choose to use it wisely, at the proper time and in the proper place. Unplugging every once in awhile could be exactly what we need.