The internet is my friend…mostly. I love to keep up with friends and family on Facebook. In the evenings I usually get in a Words with Friends game or two. It’s great to be able to check weather and news at any given moment. And of course, for work, it’s a minute-to-minute necessity – at least we think it is.
When I arrived at work one day a couple weeks ago, we had no internet service. It is weird to realize how much we rely on those connections just to keep our little world spinning. At first it was a novelty. We spent a few minutes chatting, even having a cup of coffee together without worrying too much about the work awaiting us.
Then we started to get restless. We made a tentative plan, not knowing how long we might be without internet. In our department we had site visits that could be made off schedule, and that would be productive. We got caught up on some filing, and even did a little cleaning. Now, what?
In the middle of the morning I received this satirical text from a colleague:
“Day 1, hour 2 with no internet connection. The hours are getting longer now and my hope is starting to fade. All my office mates have gone off in search of anything that might distract them from the knowledge that we might not get out of this place with our sanity. I sit and wonder how I’ll fill the coming hours, how I can be productive, huh – when did we get that water spot on the ceiling tile? I’m going to sign off now, with the hopes that I will talk with you again…but I can’t say for sure if we will survive this day.”
I laughed out loud at the absurdity of it (and my colleague’s sense of humor!). It really wasn’t that many years ago we still knew how to accomplish almost everything without that technology. And we were dumbstruck by our current predicament.
Then a cool thing happened. People started walking to colleagues’ offices to conduct business. Upstairs and downstairs, throughout the campus, people were taking care of business in person. I even thought people looked relaxed, less stressed, happier… probably not a coincidence.
It was almost 3:00 p.m. when our technological world was returned to us. We all made our way back to our respective offices to take care of business in our usual manner.
I hope I don’t forget that day too soon. It was a dramatic reminder of our humanity, and of the sacrifice we make when we spend a day looking at a computer screen instead of each other. I very much enjoy the efficiency technology brings to my life; I just need to fortify boundaries to assure it doesn’t become my life.
Stop by sometime.