I like Sunday mornings as it's the only day of the week that Dara doesn't get up for work. We have nothing to do but chill, talk, drink tea, read. It just feels so good to wake up after a good nights sleep, with no hangover, in a comfortable place with no rush to do anything. Even better being next to someone that you love. That couple of hours is just absolute bliss. I'm a smug bitch.
This Sunday morning Dara read the news and I read some of my book. We conversed, as you do, putting the world to rights.
I mentioned that I'd seen a post on Insagram by someone I follow ('that_paleo_guy'); he posted a picture saying 'SATURDAY SOCIAL MEDIA SHUTDOWN #saturdaysocialmediashutdown' and in the caption he put "Time to detox from social media for the day. Shutting off the cell phone and tablet until the sun comes up tomorrow morning. No notifications, no distractions from the digital world, no blue lights, no nothing. Time to refresh. I'll see you all in the am. #peaceout #timeout #refresh #reset #reboot #unwind #familytime #metime #nodistractions #feelgood" - I thought that was a good initiative.
I also told him about this set of photos by photographer Izabela Urbaniak of her children enjoying technology free summers.
I have mentioned before on my blog (and in conversation with D) that I really do appreciate my morning walk with Finn as a time to be away from the madness of the world, to not absorb information, to just be with nature. However, I still feel like I spend way too much time sucked into the internet, scrolling though status updates on Facebook and new posts on Instagram. It's often the first thing I think to do when I wake up - check for notifications, refresh, refresh, refuckit. It can't be healthy. This guy explains it well:
"Generation of idiots, smart phones but not people!" Oh dear.
I thought to myself on Sunday morning "I am going to spend less time online and more time in life, organic, natural life." I enjoy using social media as a platform to connect and share photos, humour, interesting articles, perspective on things, it's a great thing but it shouldn't be as pertinent on my mind.
When I do eventually nestle down and start a family, I'm going to encourage alternative methods of enjoyment and stimulation. I don't wish to deprive my future sprogs of technology as we do live in a technological world, I want them to fit in but I don't want them to be consumed by it. I'm sure not many people admittedly want their kids to be obsessed with technology but undeniably, TV or a game on your iPhone are useful solutions to curing a child's boredom while you're occupied with something else. I will strive to avoid this - summer's without technology sound dreamy and unimaginable in this day and age, yet it wasn't that long ago that these technologies were invented. Let's take a leaf out of Dollyandfife and Izabela Urbaniak's book.
Let's go outside, let's get sucked into the natural world more often.
