24 Hour Disconnect
My 24 hour disconnect began at 0930 on Saturday, October 24th. This day began with a surfing session out at Leadbetter beach in Santa Barbara. In the ocean, no one can be on their cell phone. Other surfers and paddle boarders were enjoying the beautiful day catching waves and chatting and smiling between sets. There is no need for technology (besides the use of photography to capture the beauty).
From there I went to enjoy a cinnamon roll and coffee with my boyfriend, Jason. Sitting there at the cafe, my boyfriend and the owner got into a conversation regarding a movie and Australia, in which neither of them could remember the name of the movie nor the location in Australia that it took place. So how did they figure it out you ask? Google of course! What did we do before technology to solve these sort of problems?
After our coffee and cinnamon rolls, we took the bikes to the beach for Open Streets festival in Santa Barbara. Along Castillo street, the roads had been blocked off and vendors lined the streets. People were mostly engaged in the festivities at hand, but of course people everywhere were disengaged and focused on texting or connecting with others via cell phone. Whether or not this took away from their experience or not is tough to say. Probably depended upon how long they were engaged with their phone, and how often it posed as a distraction.
From the festival, we continued our adventure out into Solvang, where we embarked into a corn maze at the Solvang Pumpkin Patch. Here, it was essential to take pictures because how often does one partake in a corn maze. Although I did not use my phone to take pictures, I was photographed using Jason’s phone.
Later, we went to the movies. To look up movie times, we once again used a telephone. Sure we could have used a newspaper or gone to an actual theater, but a particular movie might not be playing at a certain theater or finding a newspaper at 9 o’clock at night can be difficult. Overall, it is a difficult task to completely disconnect in this day and age. Technology enables the ease of information and documenting the present moment, although it can also take away from the present and be a constant distraction.
