Knowing when to switch off

 Knowing when to switch off

So, you’ve planned to meet up with someone, they’re late and you’re alone, what do you do? Whip out old trusty, your phone…

How long are you comfortable with the solo company of your internet-phone poison? For me, the limit hits when I’ve text everyone back that I needed to and moseyed through Facebook until one seemingly harmless click has spiraled so deep down the rabbit hole that I’m 50 odd photos through stalking a friend of a friend of a friend’s album.

Yes, I love photos, but I know it’s gone too far when I subconsciously prefer to spend ten, or so, minutes of my life wrapped up in someone else’s cyber bubble than face the reality of my own situation; that I’d rather use my phone as an alone defense mechanism than embrace the real people surrounding me…  

Putting down my social shield feels like that classic nightmare of standing naked in front of your classmates who are laughing and pointingfer to spend ten ( and embracing being alone feels at you. It’s ironic to consider how social media profiles generally consist of you presenting yourself visually and literally in such a way that you really are laying your inner-self bare for the whole world to read and see. Years and years of history of photos and comments by friends, exes and family of drunken nights out, declarations of love and questionable humour are publically thrust upon any Tom, Dick and Harry that you mildly cross paths with. Surely this should be more threatening than a simple hello to someone you don’t know?

Alas no, the internet has made propositioning a stranger a bit weird. Brazenly it’s considered completely acceptable to follow, poke or tag people you don’t know nor are even likely to ever meet. Why are we liberated by talking to strangers online and closeted in mingling in the real world.

On a recent trip to the Lake District where signal is mythical, I learned one of the most important lessons of my semi-adult life; switching off is great therapy. Of course at first I played the classic idiot wandering around aimlessly with my phone in hand and arm thrust in the air thinking that the additional metre would get me at least a bar…. After the blood had completely vanished from my arm, I gave up.

 After the initial sense of being a bit lost wore off, I remembered the me that used to exist pre-internet. I read for a bit, went for a walk, met some randomers who suggested a meal which lead to some live music that carried on to some drinks and left me with a smug sense of self pride that I survived, just like they did in ye olden days!

It has become much trickier to navigate through life once you’ve become used to being chauffeur driven around it by Smartphones. Though my involuntary cut off was quite the apparition, I genuinely think I would struggle to find my way from place to place without being a blue dot and would miss feeling like I have the answer to everything, thanks Google!

Though I’m not ready to become a fully-fledged Anti-Social-Media’er, I’m making the effort to put my phone away in social situations and see where life leads you. You’d be surprised at the opportunities that come your way when you don’t have a shield up…