Saturday 30 August 2014

Life Offline

There have been a couple of instances over the last few weeks where I've been forced away from my laptop screen and not through choice. Without going into details, there was an instance where we were left without power throughout the house (except from one plug socket in the kitchen that for some reason wasn't affected) and another where my laptop basically decided not to work for a day. Both times made me realise just how heavily I rely on technology, specifically my laptop.

If you're reading this now, chances are you're more than a little familiar with the internet. As someone who is fairly active online on most social media sites I spend a lot of time on my laptop. And I mean a lot. If I'm not watching YouTube videos I'm blogging or chatting to my friends via Facebook Chat or seeing what the latest news is on twitter. I've always been aware of the time I spend on my laptop but I never really considered how much I rely on it.

Obviously, spending time on my laptop is not the only thing I do. I'm a fairly big reader so if technology is down my automatic reaction is to head to a book. I love that I'm able to do this and I have that back up, but I've noticed that my attention span when it comes to reading isn't great anymore because my brain expects things to be constantly moving forward like a twitter feed. It takes a really good book to captivate me and hold my attention for hours at a time these days whereas even last summer I read whole books in a day because they held my attention. I feel like because I rely on technology so much, I feel like I always have to be connected to the world around me through it which means I find it difficult to switch off from the world and enter the world of a book.

I don't like how much time I spend on my laptop, but I don't think it's a massive issue either. I'd like to not rely on my laptop as something to hold my attention for long periods of time and a tool for curing boredom that nothing else can cure but my reliance on technology has also led to me setting up this blog and my others. That proves that the time I spend online isn't a total waste because at least I have produced something at the end of it. 

What do you think? Do you rely heavily on technology? Do you think it's a problem if you do?

Lucy x

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