Ping, woosh, tada, tkt-tkt, bada-bing, ribbit, bzzzt or whatever sound your phone makes, these are undoubtedly part of our daily lives for good. And for good reason.  Emails, social sites, games, commerce, calorie counters are integrated into our daily lives.  Life happens online.

But it does a lot more.  It affects life offline.

Notice how conversation at the restaurant dinner comes to a halt when there’s a ping in your purse? Or whatever is taking places changes course when someone in the conversation reaches for their chiming phone?

So we refresh.  Every so often on a weekend or on a particular day on our vacation, our family calls for a technology free day.  We pry the devices from our clutches and slip them into a drawer for an entire day.  

Huh!!  The silence is deafening.  We stare into space and fidget.  

Then...we talk.  The skills we take for granted come back.  Conversations spring to life.  We put on coffee and pull out a game.  We walk in the woods or along the beach.  We invite friends over.  We go on an outing and explore the town together.  We build something.  We share our dreams.  We read.  All without distraction.

In the evening we reunite with our technology.  It didn’t miss us.  It’s feeling aren’t hurt.  Our day was refreshing, almost like we are more human again.

#techfreeday  #morehuman #refresh