Turn Off the Phone and Reclaim Your Empty Space

A rotary phone, cassette player, vinyl and board games that required actual people sitting across from you seem like a scene from the distant past. A newspaper you held in your hands that didn’t refresh every thirty seconds is something many kids now will never feel. 

Could you live like that again? [I could!] Could you give up the smartphone with constant pings? Life then was slower. You waited for the phone. You missed people if you weren’t home. You knocked on a neighbor’s door instead of sending a text. Kids played Monopoly until someone flipped the board. Adults sat on porches and talked with neighbors.  

Now kids are losing the habit of unscripted conversation.  They’re less practiced at reading a room or sitting through an awkward silence. We order everything, stream everything and treat a message as being enough. Visiting neighbors used to be normal. Now it feels like work. Technology promised simplicity. What it delivered was more layers of complexity and chaos with constant notifications, passwords, group chats that never end and the low-grade pressure of being reachable and accessible to the world all the time.

We carry a device that does a thousand things and still feel busier than ever. The old way wasn’t better in every way. You were either there or you weren’t. The record played until the side ended. The game lasted until it was over. That’s the part worth missing, not the inconvenience, but the empty space. The part of life where you didn't always have to be "on." Try shutting off the phone or leaving it in a different room and taking a break.  Your mind and body will thank you. 

Much Love, Lynn

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