Digital blackout
Every year for Easter, we gather at my aunt’s house in central California. While the specific agenda of the weekend have shifted over time, the main themes have remained: time together, talking over good food, resting, and relaxing.
It’s also a unique weekend and a little oasis for a specific reason: there is no TV service or internet.
Yes, you read that right.
Now, in this day and age, that is almost irrelevant given the unlimited data most phone plans have and the ability to download episodes from most streaming platforms that you can watch offline.
But back years ago, that wasn’t available. The options were to talk to each other, cook together, read, go for walks…or maybe just sit quietly. But no electronics.
And funny enough, this is one of my top favorite things about this time every year. It is a self-imposed digital blackout (for the most part). Even though I have my phone and computer, I leave them in another room on silent and spend the days as though I don’t have access. I have been known to read two books over the course of the weekend while also participating in jigsaw puzzle time, cooking dinners, and going for hour-long walks.
It’s blissful.
The funniest thing about it, though, when I really stop to think…is that I can do this any time. I can, any day, just put my phone on silent and keep it in another room. Leave my computer off. Never turn the TV on. And yet I don’t.
Makes me wonder what other basic daily joys I might delight in if I dipped into this digital blackout more often…
