This week, with plenty of warning, our whole suburb had the electricity cut for the entire day. For weeks now, during our daily dog walk, I have been noticing the new wooden electrical poles laying next to the very slanted and wonky ones on the semi-main road in my suburb. I absolutely love cranes and big building equipment, so I was looking forward to this day of work taking place just near my house. I was just a bit excited!
As I knew the power was going to be cut, I made sure that I had not planned anything on that day that needed me to use electricity. I made sure we had had our warm showers the night before, that mobile phones were charged, that my car was on the other side of the remote control garage door and that the fridge was stocked with food/meals that did not need to be heated up. Luckily it was a cool day so none of our food in the fridge (or us without fans and air conditioners) perished.
This one day made me reflect on a lot. I realised that we do not appreciate just how much we need and use electricity when it is in rich supply. How much we actually take it for granted. For example, when I go to turn on a lamp or light, work on my computer, use the Internet (yes, I still have ADSL), fill a bath with hot water, heat food up in the microwave, cook a meal on the stove or in the oven, speak on my phone, sit in a cool air-conditioned room, turn a fan on, notice my daughter on her iPad, watch TV or just look at the digital clock on the cooker… do I actually appreciate the ease and gift electricity offers all of us and supports us with in our daily lives? And then I ask – how much do we use electricity for what we need it for and how much do we completely misuse it and overuse it excessively to check-out in life? Lots came up to notice and I also got to appreciate (apart from how lovingly organised I am) how my family and I now live together in the world today, just from having the electricity cut for one day.
On this day my daughter and I had a lovely day and in a sense, it wasn’t too difficult for us because for a while now our family watches TV rarely, we are on computers to do purposeful work and my daughter has a 15 minute iPad limit for games each day. So the difficulty of not having the technology as a distraction or gap filler was not there for us as such and this was amazing in itself to appreciate. We as a family are quite comfortable now to hang out, chat, do little projects together and interact without the distraction or noise of technology in the background.
However, after talking to a few people, including kids, it was interesting to feel how much we as a society have come to rely on the distraction of technology. And a part of me already knew this as I once informally surveyed groups of 5-6 year old children, asking how many of them had either TV, iPad, x-box etc in their bedrooms, and more than 60% of them put their hands up. So I knew there was a reliance on technology and that it is often used as a babysitting tool. But then, when there is a reliance on something, what happens when it is taken away? We are of course left to feel how much we rely on it.
So how did people cope and what did they do on our no electricity day?
Some people needed to take their kids out of the house completely to do an outdoor activity while others who stayed home felt the loss of the distraction and false safety that their gadgets provided. One pre-teen in particular shared that they felt a loss, almost like a friend or family member had gone and there was also an anxious feeling, not being able to access the uncharged phone. This sharing was quite a huge one and an indictment of our society and of where our young are at today and what part we, all of us as adults, have played in this ‘reliant on technology’ era that our young are growing up in.
So what exactly did my daughter and I do on this day and more importantly, what magic did I get to witness simply because there was no technology around?
First we took our dogs for a walk together, practising our new training methods, which are working a treat. Our walk went around quite a bit of our suburb so I got to witness the activity in the ‘hood’. I got to walk past the amazing work the electrical people were doing and see the fabulous cranes and other gadgets they used. It really is amazing to see and appreciate the teamwork that takes place on such a vast project from the men who keep the pedestrians safe, the ones who guide the traffic, to the groups of people communicating and working together to take down and replace these huge wooden poles, making sure all the wires are dealt with correctly and everyone is safe.
When we came home we had a bite to eat together and chatted for a bit. We got ready for the day. Then we did a little project together. We painted a little wooden dove mobile that my daughter got for Christmas. We designed detailed patterns and she directed me to how she would like it to look – what colours and designs to use. I got to work side by side with my daughter while I listened to her humming along beautifully. I got to listen to her cute stories and appreciate her lovely way of communicating. I love the detail in her words and it is so great to feel a child comfortable and fully expressing themselves. There were moments with a feeling of pure stillness, even though we were working and moving… many magical moments to appreciate. Then we chilled for a while, we had lunch, I had a little nap while she cleaned out her bedroom drawers and rearranged a few things. So all in all, a fabulous day that she said was only a little bit hard without electricity and technology.
How much are we really missing out on because of our overuse and excessiveness in technology? How many moments with our children do we let slip through our fingertips and most importantly, what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?
By Johanna Smith, Bachelor of Education (Major Special Needs, Minor Psychology), Certificate of Early Childhood Education, Complementary Health – Esoteric Practitioner, Student of Counselling Diploma
Further Reading:
Pleasures of Life or Distractions
Crying out for connection: technology and us
Technology: Are you connected?
For ‘electricity’ read ‘power’ and when we cut ourselves off from our power we don’t know who we are.
Life is so much more glorious when it is kept simple.
Technoloism can be a prison, or a joy, it is in how we use technolodgy, either to communicate or check-out and when we feel we are missing-out or checking-out what are we really neglecting in our life? Could it be we are avoiding, neglecting or missing our connection to our essences, which with True understanding is the energetic appreciate-ive-ness of the fact that we are simply more than this physical body and the distractions by technology keeps us in this ideological belief or illusionary way of living? Thus True appreciation can be only when we understand that what we have in life comes from God and it is when we accept this level of Loving Truth of what we have in life the search for more from out-side of ourselves diminishes until we become fully connected to our essences.
I absolutely love looking into a fire, I can imagine in days of old whole families and communities assembled around a fire, now we have the TV and instead of giving us inspiration and warmth the TV contents drains us and makes us more separative. Oh bring back the days of the hearty warm fire.
How is that we can now also get a fire-look-alike for our TV. and this has no heat, so as we can warm from within, and this heart-felt-ness happens when we are working together as a true family.
Love it! Taking it back to basics!
Life is so much more fun with face to face connections.
What a great opportunity you had to experience a day without electricity; and I agree too many children are palmed off with technology so parents have some ‘me’ time, and the consequences in my experience is not always great, ‘How many moments with our children do we let slip through our fingertips and most importantly, what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?’
There are many things we take for granted and could appreciate in our lives, this is a lovely example with electricity, ‘do I actually appreciate the ease and gift electricity offers all of us and supports us with in our daily lives?’
There are so many things in life we don’t even realise we have become overly dependent on until we have a situation that whips away the crutch long enough for us to feel it. They may be inconvenient and we may hate them, but these moments can be wonderful opportunities for getting a reality check, see what is beneath our dependency and choosing differently.
Technology has come to be such a major and at times dominating factor in modern life, and I often marvel at how incredible it is, but not only that, but the fact of the teams of people and huge production lines that create it all.
There is something very beautiful about this article – how it inspires to have appreciation for the finer details of life, such as the fact of electricity in our homes.
I like to combine the two – technology and connecting. Technology can be very interfering and disturbing, but then so can my own thoughts be.
We had one of those scheduled days recently and, lo and behold, it rained on that morning so the electricity cut was postponed at the last moment and we had to go through it a short time later! There are ways to work during blackouts – laptops for example but it shows how much we are dependent on our utilities.
When all the electronic means of communication are unavailable we are offered the opportunity to connect and talk face to face with others.
It feels very freeing to have a forced no go on anything electronic and a beautiful opportunity to come together with friends, family and connect.
My siblings and I used to love power cuts as a child as it was so much fun to have candles, flashlights, play board games and get more attention from our parents. Then the lights would suddenly come on, and the relief on my parents’ faces was apparent for all to see, and this was because they missed watching the television. Power cuts were a rare occurrence but they gave the family a stop and a chance to be with each other in a different way.
This sounds very familiar. The relief in having to spend time connecting to our family when the myriad of distractions are taken away.
Great blog Johanna, it reminds me of a time in the seventies when my children were growing up, and we decided not to have TV, it was great, as a family we learnt to play together and work together, we very much enjoyed the projects the kids were involved in.
It really is incredibly fresh and to have the opportunity build slightly not to have that constant hum of electricity pulsing through everything in our house.
My workplace is notorious for blackouts and poor internet connection and yet I continue to be surprised when the space is created for people to connect, albeit imposed, how much information is shared which allows things to be done more effortlessly.
An example that we all can take home with us.. the urgency of seeing what distraction of technology is actually doing with us. For it keeps us at times further away from each other than we potentially can imagine.
You can feel the harmony in your family from just reading your blog .. that its a truth. I love the fact that your ‘daughter has a 15 minute iPad limit for games each day.’ I feel this is how it should be, currently technology (aka social media) is predominately bringing up our children which is shocking and because of this I wonder how the future is going to be with this happening. I am noticing more and more with the young people I work with how unsettled they are and how their concentration time is really short. Maybe globally we should have a limited use of electricity this would 1. make us appreciate it more and prepare for the day differently and 2. Maybe improve our relationships? But it is sad state when we are looking at taking electricity away to improve our relationships!!
I love the space that was offered to you by the power cut and lack of available technology. It really shows how much we use technology to avoid connection with ourselves and each other. So much so we freak out when it is not available!
“I realised that we do not appreciate just how much we need and use electricity when it is in rich supply. How much we actually take it for granted.” Electricity is a form of energy that has been developed in replica to the energy that is passing through us all the time so when we take it for granted and are unaware of how we choose energy to be distracted we are missing out on understanding the power and force of the choice of energy.
It is easy to get caught up in keep up with the constantly changing technology and the platforms that are available for us to communicate through. However, at the foundation of all our relationships be it with each other and technology itself, the quality of our connection to who we are is what directs the quality of connection we have with everything else, and whether it is a need to escape or a willingness to connect with the purpose to explore and deepen our relationship with being who we are.
Technology over Togetherness I know which one I would choose that would last far longer than a fleeting screen.
We have recently been through a period of no power and phone due to a storm, and it really exposed our lack of preparation for this eventuality. As we are in the country and on tank water we also had no water out of the taps and no flushing toilets. After the initial what do we do now, it was a gradual organisation as to what we could or could not do, which was done with the growing appreciation of all the services we tend to take for granted – until they are not there. I actually began to enjoy the time without power and when it came on while the house was glowing from all the beautiful candle light I was almost disappointed.
There is a simplicity to life without technology. Without technology a space is created to re-connect to others in a truer, more present way. Perhaps we could learn to live with our technology, taking the best of what it has to offer, whist relating to each other in a deeper way that we naturally have without it?
We all long to be connected to which is why we love our smart phones but what is the quality of connection that we are receiving? It is the quality of the connected that matters.
Wouldn’t be awesome if the whole world had a power cut and that everyone had no choice but to stop their activity on which every platform they choose and actually stand on a true platform of being here together on earth, as brothers and connect to each other as a priority not something that can be occasionally connected to.
The way we use technology is so disciplined. But not in a true way. We religiously turn to devices to help us escape with consistent regularity. We are dedicated and persistent. If only we see this then we can understand that it’s not about devices but energy we let in that wants us to withdraw and run away. Thank you Johanna.
If not having a phone or technology gadget feels like a close one passing, it is great learning for our younger generation to be aware of truly appreciating the connections and relations in their lives. As when technology is used in disregard to the people in our lives then truly it is no different if they have passed, or if we have passed.
Great point Adele as the distraction of technology certainly encourages us to dismiss the deeper level of life and our connection to it, that is very much alive and very real.
This brings to mind people sitting at table in a restaurant and not talking to each other but being on their phones! ?
This is such a common occurrence now we don’t bat an eyelid. The irony is that we are using technology to seek connection, yet it is making this harder to do.
There is a demand for all our distractions. We won’t change if we are not willing to connect to our bodies and actually feel what there is to feel. All the hurt that are there won’t disappear all of a sudden, but with honesty and people that you can trust and reflect that there is another way you can make a start.
I always realise how dependent on electricity I am when the power is cut but I still turn the light switch every time I walk into a room. It also shows how automatic that movement has become – entering a room and then using the light switch without consciously being aware of the movement as such.
It is fascinating how much we can let technology run our lives and not really take into consideration the level of energy that it comes with. Having space away from this is super important and I am learning how to not check out while I am on them. To have a purpose and focus on each time you are using them is key.
It only takes honesty and understanding and more understanding for the state of affairs in tech dependence. Going cold turkey is not the way, but in my experience someone with huge tech addiction makes their own choice to stop when they really feel their own body. So remaining on an intellectual level about this issue will not be sufficient.
‘Electricity Cut – Oh no, NO Technology!’ Yippie, time to connect, play, do jobs around the house, be with ourselves and talk. Sounds almost like the ‘old days’.
What a blessing to have the gorgeous time with your daughter, ‘I got to listen to her cute stories and appreciate her lovely way of communicating. I love the detail in her words and it is so great to feel a child comfortable and fully expressing themselves. There were moments with a feeling of pure stillness, even though we were working and moving… many magical moments to appreciate.’ So much to appreciate.
I love the way this blog prompts us to appreciate what we have, as with many things we take it for granted and do not spend a thought on how we use it.
You pose a great question Johanna, and it is interesting to see how with just the littlest of effort we can enjoy another way of being. Is it possible that the overuse of electrical appliances is passed on to our children by us, the adults, simply because we have not made the time and space to be with them?
The reliance on screens and the amount of time even very small children spend on them are going to create serious problems for our future generation, one that we have been responsible for raising.
I find it is always great to reflect on our day or different aspect of our lives, we can learn much and, or appreciate much.
Technology has just become the latest and fanciest technique to push our luck. Our life advances but where we are coming from remains the same – escaping and avoiding responsibility as much as we can. Imagine if we embraced this though – what purpose could we embody? What designs could be delivered? The possibilities are endless when the philosophy backing our life is Love.
What I see with kids is that they want that connection but often in our pace of life today it is not there and so to avoid feeling the lack of connection in their lives they go to devices as a form of stimulation. It keeps them in a heightened state and level of anxiety and when this is taken away they are left to feel the disconnection around them.
Part of me wondered if it was not planed (that the electricity was going off) and just went off would there be a part of you that felt a bit anxious about it or would you have been the same .. as at ease as you were? Awesome that you got to feel just how much having electricity supports you and your family and on reflection I know I take this for granted too.. that it is at the touch of a button when needed. And really beautifull to hear about and feel the relationship you have with your daughter … very precious.
I feel technology can get in the way of people truly connecting with each other especially when it is used like a barrier, as a form of protection or a security blanket. I saw an example of this yesterday how 3 teenagers and a 10 year old each holding their phones and iPod looking at their screens while they were having a conversation with each other. I sense there was a lack of connection, depth or warmth in their conversation.
Recently I experienced being out in the North of London in an area I was unfamiliar with, and my phone battery went from 74% to 2% in the space of a few minutes. So this left me with the dilemma of trying to get home without my iPhone transport app. As I walked around the town looking for a bus stop and was by now missing my app, I thought what did we do before mobile phones, how did we get home on public transport – we opened our mouth and asked someone. So this is what I did and had some lovely conversations along the way, that I would not have had otherwise.
The more we have our own connection the less we freak out when our electricity is cut, its fascinating just how much we rely on something and when its gone if we’ve not built that connection with ourselves and others we are like drug addicts craving our next hit.
Life is bright and has a lot of depth without the marvels of technology, and it seems we have made the stimulation of the 5 senses the only important desires of the human being – with over salty/sugary foods, thrilling pictures in movies, sharp sounds but it robs us of connecting with our 6th sense which is what leads us to the depth, ins and outs of life rather than simply what we have experienced.
It is so true our dependency on technology is terrible and I can feel it for myself as well – I notice more and more how it I am doing useless things on the computer or my phone just to not feel uncomfortable in a situation or hide my beautiful presence.
I have challenged myself to not look at Facebook for a month and it has freed me up to do many other things in my day. Social media can be such a time waster.
This is interesting Elizabeth and I wonder if we use social media in a different way it could be a great platform for communication, connection and expansion. I feel it is like many things, when we apply it with love, purpose and appreciation it has the ability to support people to evolve.
I am all for looking more closely at our use of technology and what the long and short term impact is to our health and we’ll being. I have realised how much of a role model I am to my daughter and want to support her to live with technology not be dictated to by it.
I tried to have a meal time without technology last night. I was on my last mouthful when a text message came in that I couldn’t resist looking at. Almost!
It is interesting to observe how people react at work when the computer systems fail. Some people panic while others see it as an opportunity to spend quality time with their patients.
We are currently living in an interesting dichotomy whereby on the one hand we have so much access to super easy communication with each other via technology, but on the other hand we seem to be living more and more seperated lives. The very thing that has made it easier for us to connect with each other is the very thing that is making us more isolated, as we can talk to anyone at pretty much anytime of day or night, from pretty much anywhere in the world, without having to physically see or be with them. What a great opportunity we have to both appreciate the access we have to each other when its taken away from us for a while, and also to spend some true quality time connecting with each other without the distraction that comes with technology when we have it at our finger tips 24/7.
A day without electricity in the ‘burbs’, what a great opportunity to really appreciate modern technology and how it supports us (and not distract us) from our responsibilities in daily life.
Technology is very good at keeping in touch with others, but has become like an addictive drug that people cannot be without and can be seen to walk, ride bikes, drive cars etc whilst clutching mobile phones and not being present in their body connection at all.
Thank you Johanna, for sharing this beautiful reflection of the value of real connections, with ourselves and each other, and how it is this quality of connection that determines the degree of natural enrichment and fulfilment we experience in our lives. There is so much more to gain through being open to truly connect with each other.
Recently I’ve been commuting to and from work without headphones and am noticing a massive difference in how I have to be with myself. I also hear society – a reality check at the mildest.
I went to my sister’s house the other day and they had the fire on, I absolutely love sitting by an open fire feeling the warmth watching the flames, this used to be quite a natural way of life people sitting in front of the fire reflecting on life. Now however this epicentre of the home has been replaced more often then not with the TV.
These days that force us to feel what maybe is hidden behind the use of technology, are an opportunity to surrender and explore new ways of communication and life, and this can be a bit uncomfortable, but definitely be worth of it.
If we cut electricity I think we would then be forced to see the real state of our health, both physical and mental. What would we do? I wonder this often if we took away that aspect of doing spurred on by technology, would things be different and how would I approach life.
Yesterday the question of “do I use my phone too much?” was circling my mind – and it’s a valid question – I rely on my phone for SO much, messaging, email, sat nav, my fitness routine, calendar, social media, taking photos, tracking my cycle, tracking my sleep, banking – and more. It’s hard to imagine how people organised their lives before iphones, but do I use it too much? Probably! It could be an interesting experiment to see if I used my phone less what I would use that spare time for.
It feels so clear that without entertainment people would engage each other far more and the connection between us would be from within.
So why do we choose entertainment time and time again?
Having an interruption to your electricity can be a fun exercise in how to do things differently, much like we did way back when. It would definitely be a simpler day and could even be lots of fun.
I totally agree Susan. But imagine how connected and interactive we would be worldwide if we all brought a full connection of ourselves to the table and the used the technology available. Amazing to consider.
I do feel the responsibility as an adult as well to reflect something different. Not long ago I used the subway and I could have checked all my emails/work, but I consciously did not- because if we don´t start to act differently, who will ever know how distracting and harmful it is to not be consciously present and open to the actual real life with real people around you?
It is very worrying how our youth especially is trained and used to use all these technological gadgets that are around. Whenever I am outside and people wait for example for a bus, you almost see nobody just being with themselves doing nothing- almost all of them have either music, their phone or their Ipad in their hand. It definitely needs a stop – this false way of connection is very harmful . I am quite happy that I was born before all this started and if I would have a child, I would not allow these things to overtake. I would show them how to play in nature for example , like we once did…
Great questions and I have clocked how sometimes I would let my eyes gaze over at my phone and move my attention to this and cut of from the person that I am with. It made me feel disrespectful to the other and at all costs I make sure that this does not happen any more. Occasionally I may excuse myself and this is something that I really don’t like doing and would always pre-warn that I maybe expecting a call.
There is no doubt a real problem with the way we as society are addicted to technology, we rely on it not just to serve a purpose of communication but more so one of distraction and as a drug, Looking back on my experience with technology that has been the case and even today I have to be aware of what is more important, the computer screen or the connection with people. The truth no doubt is true connection and in that technology can be used with purpose, care and not at the expense of relationships.
It is incredible to think how much has changed since that first evening when Benjamin Franklin took his kite out in to the lightning storm some 265 years ago. He was curious and wanted to explore the natural world. What he could not perhaps have predicted was where humanity was heading and how consumed and addicted we would become to our electrical devices. But maybe had he seen at the time what behaviours were prevalent in us all, then this would have been a more easy observation to make and so when he introduced his work on electricity to society it could have been done with more of an element of responsibility for how we use this amazing gift. Which is a great lesson for life now with everything that is being invented, because are we really introducing advancements in to our lives in a way that promotes an ever deepening and respectful existence with each other?
With so much dependency on technology there seems to be less and less room for true communication between people. Even our language has changed to the point of abbreviations becoming just a series of letters. What will come next? Perhaps eventually we will just make sounds to each other – now that would be interesting!
Is there anyone that doesn’t have and carry around a phone. What if the condition of the phone is a reflection of our life? Is it pristine from being held back, covered in something that is bold and expressive, battered having a hard life or worn-out from constant use?
I remember not having TV when young and even though I found family life tricky I enjoyed being with me, family at times and friends and it all being bearable (!)
I also remember being unhappy at weekends when we did get TV and binge watching TV and noticing how physically sick I felt. Many family feud began over argument over who got to choose which program.
Now I work with families and there is definitely a relief from parents when the children are consumed by a screen. Then the child doesn’t have to be interacted with and the parent will often say that’s fine because they’re content. They may even say they’re fine because they’re being sociable with their friends online.
But going back to my experience. Even though I was unhappy a lot in my family TV just made it a lot worse. I disconnected from myself and felt nothing. The children I work with seem to have given up on connection and when tech is taken away they often get very angry, not wanting to feel what their life is like. And the parents don’t like this retaliation or the fact they have to look at their relationship with their children so screen time is resumed.
And I get this because if problems and issues seem unsolvable then why would you want to look them straight in the eye without something to ease the pain? So people reflecting the potential in how we can relate to one another like in this blog, is so where people can be inspired.
I used to love having power cuts because the whole family would get together and play board games instead of watching the TV. It makes me wonder in the days prior to electricity what the family interactions would have been like.
Down my street we have a new gaming cafe opened up and every time I walk by I see it packed with people, not talking, not interacting only looking at there computer screens engrossed and taken over by the game they are playing. No wonder we have such a decline in mental health.
It’s great when life serves us up something to remember. Like loosing electricity for the day or something similar, we are shown how simple things can be and how things use to be. I don’t mean about literally living in the dark ages but when life was first about true relationships above all else. I agree that our growing reliance on these things and technology is concerning while at the same time appreciating that when they are removed for whatever reason it doesn’t take too long for us all to remember. I notice things in the areas around where I live and work, people remember when they are reminded about what is true. I have no need to say it to them or to advertise it but the more deeply and strongly I lead something I truly feel then everyone at least has that choice as well if they want it.
This felt like it was a really beautiful time to connect on a deeper level and share some quality time together which can be a challenge in current times.
It sounds quite fun, having no electricity for the day – a day to embrace rest!
Electricity is part of everything these days, it has great purpose but also as you highlight we can get lost in the screens and forget to connect as a family as a community and as a society. It would be great if we took a fresh look at technology to see how and where it serves truly. Where it makes a difference and be open to see where it actually causes more harm.
It would be great to have a day or a week without technology. It would teach us so much about what we usually rely on. I’m sure relationships would deepen and friendships would grow. Encouraging human connection is so important. Without it we just shut down and become lifeless robots.
It is really interesting to look at all the technology we are using and how it affects us in our everyday’s lives. Especially when we compare it with say 50 years ago, when there were no computers, mobile telephones, iPad’s and so on, only radio and TV with their, compared to now, limited number of stations to tune in with. In a way it is now hard to imagine how life would be without all the gadgets but to me I know it would actually not be a problem because we already lived without, and that is actually not that long ago so we know it but comfortably forget it because of the comfort the nowadays technologies bring to us personally.
I grew up in the age with no TV, no phone at home, coal fired cooking and heating, so our normal day was spent connecting and being together. I also remember when earth moving equipment was in the street and how we were all intrigued. Then came TV and life became a distraction with the Box (TV) becoming a place where everyone came together and even started to eat our meals in front of the Box. The conversations at school became about what you had watched on the Box last night and how funny the show was. The Romans had their gladiators, Pompeii had their children, the Egyptians had mummification and the after life, and so it goes on, we all have our distractions, the generations generate a different flavour. So every generation has their different distractions in life, and when people get to “fully expressing themselves,” the need for distraction becomes a thing of the past.
I really like the idea of moments in the day where we don’t use our phones and all our electrical devices, don’t get me wrong I LOVE iPhones, and iPads and laptops but I do agree we often sacrifice the quality of our real-time connection in substitute for the ease and convenience of a screen.
Indeed Meg, the mobile phones, computers and such are used a lot to escape from real life that can bring the human interactions and the lovely connections with one another. While we all long for this love and intimacy, we forget that it is just before us, we only have to stop and connect but mostly we don’t and check in with our mobile or computer instead.
Reflecting on the quality of communication we have in our lives reveals that so much of what we say, write and share is not based on truth – technology can perpetuate this however it can also be used for true purpose – it’s all about the source it comes from.
Yes, that stillness is always there, it never goes away, we just move away from it when we don’t feel enough and go seeking something to fill that empty gap. It is our responsibility as parents/adults to not get caught up in these tantalising things and start to connect truly with our children and listen to what they may want to share. You see, it so much where the parent is busy on their phones, while the children are saying, ‘can we go now”?. Such a sad state of affairs when we place more importance on gadgets than our relationship with our kids, hence with ourself.
Technology is nothing per se, it is simply a tool to be used or abused, like so many other things in life.
What is it about power break downs that we all really like, obviously not when there is risk or danger involved, but I can remember those days when it snowed too much to go to school, or we had to use a candle in the house because there was to electricity. I could feel a stillness envelope the house, a steadiness and quiet, there was less noise, chaos and distractions…there is something that we all yearn for, is this that we are not getting in our lives in general?
The distraction and the noise of technology is something very real, it seems to have become a normal part of human everyday life, and yet we are not designed to have so much noise all the time. I know for myself and the same has been so for many people whom I have spoken with, that when the noise and the distraction is stopped, and the silence of nature is felt once again, there can be this whole sense of wellbeing and completeness. This confirms to me that there is something more to us and this something is confirmed in the silence and harmony of nature.
I can certainly relate to taking electricity for granted. I love this reminder of feeling appreciation for how supported we are by electricity. I can easily feel back to how much more physical our lives were in the past doing most things by hand or using candles for light. Although there are aspects of this simpler life that I love, I am very grateful so much of my day is freed up for other work by the advances that electricity has brought.
It’s quite commonplace to read articles on the invasive way technology has infiltrated our days. We all know that something is not quite right, and are happy to go on at length about its affects – but when it comes to putting our phone down (like the one I am typing this message on) well, that’s another story. Perhaps this is because it’s not about the technology at all but the age-old addiction that we have to being distracted from what we feel? We say that we have advanced but is it possible it’s just our distraction methods that have become enhanced? It’s ironic because when we live free of the distraction, we have space for so much Love, vitality and connection. This fulfills us in a way an app or device never will.
There is so much space and time available when we do not allow gadgets to occupy our lives, laptops, phones, TV’s all can have a purpose but they encroach on us if we do not use them responsibly.
It would be a fascinating study to log what quality our relationships are when we are not distracted by technology. In comparison to what they are like when we let this dominate our lives. From my experience the more I am connected to the people and situatation that I am in the more I don’t want anything to do with the distraction of technology.
Yes I remember these phones too Richard. Today we don’t even have a home phone in our home at all as the internet doesn’t require it. I remember when I was young, I would give people my home number (the only one that existed) or I would get theirs and then we’d ring each other hoping they would be home.
Just got hack from camping in the pouring rain, made me appreciate all technology/ having electricity has to offer but most of all a lovely dry bed and not feeling damp.
There is so much going on in our lives that is simply amazing and cool, yet we tend to miss it because we are caught up in our tablets, phones and computers. Making that conscious effort to make sure that they are not overruling our lives is essential for a healthy well-being and relationships.
I should imagine in the days of no electricity people would be early to bed and early to rise, and that’s not such a bad thing, especially as the TV can entice us to stay up longer than we would naturally.
There’s probably very little else that interferes with our natural cycles quite as much as the good old goggle box!
I love how this exposes both sides of how we use technology through our loss of it – the support it has in purpose and then the escape, distraction and checking out.
When we are truly able to appreciate our life with technology then we will truly appreciate our life without the control of technology. Otherwise there is judgement, fear and control which distracts us from truly appreciating.
I have to admit that when the electricity is cut or the Internet is down it is very quickly noticed. Not because of the inability to distract myself with technology but because of the way we can use it to work, communicate and provide services for others. In saying that, it is just as easy to enjoy a walk, being with others and making the most of the opportunity to not be engaged with technology. It all comes down to the intent and purpose of our relationship with technology.
We tend to think that technology had advanced us, evolved us and generally moved us forward in the sophistication stakes. What if it actually had led us to ‘de-volve’ in terms of reducing our expression, communication and connection? Perhaps humanity was further forward in the past where there was no distraction via all things electronic?
I always paid heed to draining batteries on devices as a great reminder that we do not drain our own reserves when we are connected and live from who we truly are.
Who has not known someone that has panicked when their phone has died? What is the difference between a phone and a can opener? Both are tools! So, when we are having a conversation with someone why must some people continue to check their can opener?
This example is hilarious Steve. If we as obsessively kept checking our can opener or anything other item as it happens, as much as we do our phones people would rightly be alarmed.
This experience offers a new perspective, this enables us to see past our habits, I say be open to life and what it offers us to learn. This lovely blog expresses this, no need to resist or get annoyed when life offers us something, we can feel supported and offered an opportunity to reflect on life.
Even the photo for this article; the iPhone out of charge with the ‘plug in immediately’ symbol on it is enough to stress a lot of people out! When things run out of charge it’s a stop moment in our day, and it’s so easy to get frustrated for this interrupting our ‘flow’, but should our flow really rely on technology this much in the first place?
A power cut exposes how much we are dependant on electricity and how much we use it. It is beautiful to see how caring you have been with your preparation to this powercut and how loving it was how you took this time as a learning process.
Wow reading this makes me reflect on how much I use technology – quiet huge as you have explained. But even more interesting is the level of care you went to in preparing the family for a power cut. And how you were all able to appreciate just what electricity gives us.
I love how you were just a bit excited about the looming power cut in your are. So many would see this as a disaster at worst or an inconvenience at best – you saw and took the opportunity to have a beautiful time connecting with your daughter.
Instead of being present and available from an openness and stillness we seem to have turned into a society where we must respond instantly to what our phones or social media is calling us to look at. This often means we are living in a nervous tension that is not our natural way of being and ultimately ends us depleting and exhausting us.
It is absolutely true how we use technology to fill our time rather than using the time to connect to people. It is very obvious that a few people waiting at the bus station busy with their phones and not caring to say hello to each other. It is an epidemic and checking us out. Thank you for sharing and bringing attention to the importance of connection in life.
I know it is not just me, but every year technology keeps getting smarter, so we don’t have to be! Are we also giving away our knowingness? We don’t have to know how to get anywhere, anymore for there are apps that will take you from A to B. Try and find one of those old things called a Map made out of dead trees. Without our inner map, are we not get lost ourselves in a world with electronic directions?
How refreshing having a technology free weekend, I think I would go through some withdrawals, but it would still be a very good exercise to go through all the same.
When we take away a child’s smart phone for a short relief they may react as their addiction is shown and withdrawals are never fun but ultimately they thank us. The space created by not having a smart phone with us all the time is a breath of fresh air.
In the past what you have described here to spend our day and time away from technology especially for the younger generation I would feel it is impossible. I could feel the harm our world is choosing for ourselves but it feels impossible to stop this. When a culture does not agree there is anything wrong with this, indeed it feels impossible. So what changes the situation in the world is our individual choices, not from our heads but truly from the heart. Today our family is just beginning to spend time to sit with each other and really talk. These are baby steps but it is our steadiness and consistency in our love and acceptance of ourselves and each other that keeps us going.
Where I work in London, it has one of the highest footfalls of tourists. The other day frantic women asked if there was anyplace to recharge phones for them as their phone had died. How did we allow something that fits into our pocket that now controls our life?
This brings memories of occasional electricity failures when I was a child, everything became more simple, steady and we all were much more present, less distractions. I liked it….in this world it is up to us to be responsible for how we use electricity, we cannot run away and go off grid, that is escape from humanity and I love people, I instead must choose to be more discerning about how and why I use it.
Reading this blog I can feel that we can appreciate far more in our lives than we (I) have thus far. Even if it may trigger an anxiety or negative emotion within us it is not the cause of our ill experience. Through Universal Medicine I’ve learnt the cause lies within our choices. So these tense situations or moments of absence of something like electricity can be a blessing and a moment to feel how supported we truly are, by the technology and by ourselves as you appreciated in your organisation.
As a society we have made evolution about technology and gadgets but what we are not doing is being honest of the level of harm this is creating in people from addictions to mental illness proves how much we are misusing it instead of developing our connection and learn from the opportunity we are presented with in each moment to moment as that is true Evolution.
I can observe the beginnings of a turn more towards activities that do not involve technology. At the supermarket the other week I saw a magazine called ‘Simply Living’, which gave lots of examples of things to do with friends and family to enjoy each other’s company and be in nature. It will be interesting to see where society goes from our current digital saturation point.
I recall great swathes of my childhood and how they relate to outdoor play and a dismissal of the new computer technology that was starting to proliferate, and I feel very blessed to have not been interested in this. What a gift the world is when we engage with it, and minimise technology to only responsible use.
I wonder what society would be like if we had days without power, days where there was no option but to connect with each other? Do you think that we would take the time to deepen relationships or would we find something else to get in the way? It’s an intersting area to consider, technology is so much part of our lives today but many of us rely on and abuse it rather than use it wisely. Perhaps thats why cyber abuse is so high.
The lack of electricity for a period of time is a great wake-up-call to appreciate how dependent we are on technology and through our developed reliance on that how we become distracted from connecting to ourselves and thereby not being fully present in our livingness. In fact, in truth it is no different to the wake-up-call we get when diagnosed cancer, just less dramatic.
I was talking with someone today who said life has to come back to community and knowing our neighbours – he hit the nail on the head! the more we bury our heads in our phones the more we miss out on some great opportunities.
The way we use electricity and take it for granted is like a symbol for how we can use and take for granted our connection to ourselves and to God. Electricity is constantly there when we want to use it but do we appreciate the fact that it powers everything in our day to day lives as does God.
Good point, Rachael – do we appreciate the constant source of love in the world?
It’s a shame that we use something like technology that potentially could bring us closer together, but actually separates us further.
As much as I appreciate technology and all it has to offer I would gladly give it all up to have the ancient intelligence that it has all replaced. I feel I could easily live in a more simple world where we could communicate with telepathy and know how to move seventy ton stones to align with the poles and the stars to within centimetres.
What a blessing it can be to pause and feel our natural bodily rhythms. We can so heavily rely on technology, and when we are not aware it can be used to distract and numb us from feeling our body’s messages and natural rhythm. The body always lets us know.
Last night I shared dinner with close friends and this was precious time well spent and could never be replaced by a screen or device. The true reflections we can offer each other are inspiring.
It is mad the world we live in now how reliant on technology we are for the basics in life like knowing the time! I have really been choosing to be more aware of my usage.
I regularly wonder how life would be if we didn’t have so much technology and different mediums/platforms that didn’t distract and on some cases rule our life. When I grew up it was just the television and a friend that had an old IBM computer. Even though there was some time wasted by numbing out with the telly there was so much more intersections and play with the neighbours and friends. We would write letters…a long forgotten art. I love receiving letters.
Simply something to bring into our awareness as much as we can… being honest about our relationship with technology; how and why we use it and the impact it has on other areas of our lives.
Technology, like most things can be used to connect us or separate us. The one that determines this is ourselves.
So true Elizabeth – like many things in this world i.e food, relationships, our work, shopping and so on; all elements of life have the ability to bring us closer to living from our essence in union with all others OR we can use them to disconnect from who we truly are and thus disconnecting from all others.
It’s not technology that is ever the issue, it is how we are using it that matters. The electricity went out in the area I was working in today and I noticed how it didn’t affect me at all. No problem I thought, I can use the laptop battery, hotspot for internet and keep working off the server, which relies on electricity. When technology is used for purpose, we can become very resourceful.
What if Technology is a Fad like bell-bottom jeans or any other fad that comes and goes in a cycle? We have not gotten on with others in face to face connections forever. Are we, not the ultimate technology that still has not been improved apon? Battery’s still not required!
The simple fact is that our reliance on technology makes us uncomfortable to do the most innate thing in the world and that is “being”. I know for myself I would pull on technology to avoid simply being still and with myself yet in doing that I miss out on life and rely on things like technology as a drug.
I was talking to a customer this week how a world wide famous advertising was cyber attacked, the company has no records keep of there staff other than electronic so they literally can not contact some of their staff. How exposing is this because we have become so reliant on technology that when it doesn’t work we are left in a situation that is not necessary. Finding the balance of technology and good old traditional methods are super important. Just like finding the balance with our relationships and how much we are in the technology zone.
A day without technology, feels like its creating an opportunity for all to deepen connection with others and sweeten relationships. It sounds like you made the most of this and planned for it very carefully, Johanna.
This is a hot topic Joanna, its beautiful to feel how you prepared yourselves for this electrical cut, the opportunities and appreciation you felt and the connection you shared with your daughter. As a swimming teacher, I speak to many school children each week, when i ask them how they are and if they have any news, many that tell me about the latest games they are playing on their iPads/DX’s week in, week out.
What I understand from this blog is how we all have the opportunity to be more present in our lives and appreciate rather than disconnect from ourselves and others. Electricity is another technology when used wisely supports us but only when we do so with conscious presence.
When I just sit and observe rather than do something on my phone, I see so many people completely taken away by devices and food and drink – often all 3 at the same time!
It’s frightening really, to consider just how dependant the younger generation are to their phones/tablets etc. The addiction of distraction is so rife, I’m very concerned about the impact of this in their later years. I’m in my mid thirties, so not so old myself, but have a memory of a time without mobile phones. I was 20 before having a phone, so my formative years know another way, although, even still…my phone often acts like an extension of my body as it’s always on me and therefore, I can feel how easy it is to allow the addiction to take over.
My Aunty had five children in a two room cottage with one light bulb maybe about seventy years ago. Imagine doing the laundry by hand and having to boil water and cook on a coal range with that many kids, also in a time when the man worked the land and didn’t lift a finger round the house. How far we have come but was life far more simpler back then?
Thank you Joanna, unfortunately we have learnt to use technology as a way to find relief and totally check out form life this is not a good indication of the foundation we have set up for our future generation which lacks the connection with the body and the ability to live from a known intellignece that can use technology not to checkout but a tool for us all to evolve.
Through our intensive use of technology we have in effect created another world/dimension in which we can get a lot of sensory stimulation, but often lack the real physical connections because we are using it to check out from the real world rather than build upon the connections we already have in life. When it gets taken away, cut off or we choose to put it down it can feel like a loss, like it was an extra limb – I know when I feel this sensation then I know there is still more to work on in terms of not using social media and technology to give me something I need – distraction, checking out etc because if I am using it solely for purpose and to extend the connections I have in my life then I wont feel a loss if I don’t have internet connection for example.
It’s frightening how we have become so dependent on technology. On one hand it has provided us with a new and more efficient form of communication, but on the other hand it has taken us away from the simplicity of being in the moment with ourselves and with the people around us. A day without electricity would be a good thing for the many who think they can’t live without it. A great lesson indeed.
Is it possible that is our understanding of energy and how it is to be used has been lost? Could there be a reason why we are no longer in the dark ages? Solar and nuclear energy will keep us amply supplied with energy into the future! So it is up to society to deliver a way of living that is supportive of a way of living that uses technology and energy so we become more considerate of others. Love as the unify energy that communicates our divine connection can be the truth that we are all searching for in this energy conscious society. Thus the communication we are actually seeking is our divine connection and is lost in the technology hungry society that are only searching for true love.
We have spent 100s of years living with that which was around us by reading people and nature. It has taken 17 years with the advent of the smart phone to discard this past knowingness.
if we didn’t have such a prolific supply of distractions – which come through technology than we certainly would have a lot to look at with regard to what founds the way we relate to each other as humans.
What a beautiful fruitful day you had without the tethering effect of a device to hold you back. Where I work if the power goes down we become impotent as all our records are electronic and so is our documentation.
I feel it is a good thing to sometimes have to go without something we are so used to ! This shows us just how much we look outside of ourselves to fill our waking hours. Your preparation Johanna was great and you allowed yourself to be in the moment also rather than completely organised and entertained.
Great blog Joanna and something that we all need to at least be aware of and look at. I have taken sometime to observe how much I use technology but also how people around me use technology, its kinda scary. Particularly kids, I think back to what I used to do and there were always games and hanging out with the neighbours going on. This doesn’t happen so often these days. Always good to keep an eye on this.
Last year we put a huge trampoline in our front yard and it’s amazing how the kids in our culdesac flock to it. Some even play on it when my daughter is not here – of course they always ask first and know their parents must be watching them.
Working from a home office is always challenging on power cut days. Being at home on power cut days is like having a holiday – I can’t vacuum, use the computer, cook…
Even when there are power cuts at people’s work in public spaces the effects are huge. I don’t feel we actually appreciate how much we use and rely on technology in our days.
It is so common these days to check our phones, emails, messages all day. Each time we do, is the impulse true and if not, what is the pull?
Perhaps something to just fill in time to not feel the uncomfortableness that many of us carry with just stopping and being. I also see this when I use public toilets in public spaces or when I am out and about. People have an unease with stopping to even go to the toilet. They rush, they bang, they talk and leave the toilet space in quite a bit of disregard. There are many areas that reflect this unease with being with ourselves and body.
‘…it was interesting to feel how much we as a society have come to rely on the distraction of technology.’ so interesting when technology’s initial purpose seemed to be to support us and yet it has become such a potential source of harm.
Following re-reading this blog I would really consider making a period of time each day to leave my phone behind and do something without any tech at all.
I love going for an hours walk without my phone. Just me and the universe.
What if – our true power is cut the moment we ‘connect’ to any device with the intent to not express the truth of who we are? This would mean that although it looks every bit the part that we have ‘power’ and are ‘connected’, by virtue of our choice to express less than our full and real self, we actually disconnect from the source that provides us with the true breath of life and in this way, render ourselves power-less.
When we rely too much on technology we miss out on genuine connections with people.
Whenever there used to be blackouts previously in the neighbourhood that I lived, I had a friend who would come around and play games. We would light candles and enjoy the novelty of being without technology and play, which I always appreciated.
‘…what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?’ There is no question that the skill of communication and a natural ability to connect with others is being squashed. Interestingly, a colleague of mine, who teaches post 18s as a teacher of English to non-native speakers, said that at break times her classroom is silent as everyone is on their mobile phones… there was no chatting with cups of tea or coffee. For someone like myself who grew up without computers and mobiles and who experienced break-times as a fun part of the day to catch up with friends, I find this very bizarre, yet it is now the norm for the next generation. If we continue the trend, just what will be the norm for the generation after the next?
Technology, in a very short time transformed the world with instant information on anything we require. Have we lost the old methods of communication with others? Talking face to face and using something called a pen and paper and the comfort of reading something that doesn’t have to have batteries. The age of enlightenment will never require a plug, for it is powered by what is within us all.
It is crazy how I so often check I have my phone and do not want to leave my house without it. It is like somehow I may miss out whether it be not replying to a text instantly or missing the perfect picture. It is the reliance that I need to catch as really if we rely on anything or anyone outside of ourselves we are setting ourselves up because we are effectively saying that is more important than we are. Instead of claiming ourselves and then using things like our phones as tools not the be all amd end all.
Sometimes we do need a radical interruption to redefine our day… losing electricity is certainly that.
It is a so lovely to appreciate our presence in all that we do. Especially when we remove the distractions of multi tasking and jumping to our devices many times a day.
I love coming back to this blog, because in a way it feels to me how things will be in the future, when we collectively realise that technology has its uses but needs to be used in a responsible way.
Losing technology can bring a feeling of worry at how would we manage due to our current dependence on it – but perhaps this dependence is the very reason that technology is so prevalent and in time this dependence will change and therefore so will our want for technology.
The love in your family shines through in your blog Johanna. I loved reading how your electricity disconnection allowed you a moment to appreciate your family’s connection.
A very inspiring sharing on our lives electricity and technology today . Are we truly evolving with it all or is it becoming a distraction and taking us away from ourselves . A modern dilemma beautifully offered here for us all to feel and to appreciate everything.
This is so cute what you have shared ‘I absolutely love cranes and big building equipment, so I was looking forward to this day of work taking place just near my house. I was just a bit excited!’ And this is shocking ‘5-6 year old children, asking how many of them had either TV, iPad, x-box etc in their bedrooms, and more than 60% of them put their hands up’ that we are letting children as young as 5 or 6 have a tv or iPad in their room! I was speaking with a young person the other day who shared at the age of 5 his brother wakes up and asks for milk and his tablet (iPad) and is given it, every morning and sometimes stay in bed until 10am in the morning playing games on it! It would probably cause chaos but sometimes I think it would do us good to have no electricity for a good few days .. maybe even week … well at least so no one has any devices, we might be a bit smelly though from not having hot showers!
I love the question of how much we are missing out on because of overdue of technology. I feel many of us actually have enjoyed temporal power cuts and all have similar stories to the cosiness and the joy of spending undistracted time together. It seems as though we are depended on the availability of power for which we choose. And so it is inspiring to hear of a family who has moved passed that and are taking those choices back into their own hands.
It is amazing how I when find myself turning to my phone when I am not wanting to feel something or supposedly because I am bored. It can so very distracting and completely take me away from where I am or who I am with. They can be great tools for communicating but now I find texts have replaced conversations amd often so little of what is truly there to be expressed is said.
This is so gorgeous Johanna, reflecting what you had already been implementing with your family before the actual day of no power, and then how you were prepared and had the loveliest day together. We all really do just want true connection and when we have a reaction to not having it, especially tv or computer, it is a great marker for what we have been choosing in our lives.
I have been visiting Vietnam for the past 8 years and on my latest trip I noticed shop- and restaurant owners using an iPad to babysit their small children. I had not noticed this before, back then it would be grandparents, aunts or uncles looking after the children and they were involved in daily life in and around the shop. It was disturbing to see f.e. a small boy just being told to push pictures of trucks so he would not get in the way of his parents. If we let technology raise our children we should not be surprised if we end up with generations of people that do not know how to be with themselves or enjoy themselves in a natural and creative way.
Well said, Carolien. It is sad to hear that even in a country such as Vietnam where relationships and family are treasured, that the temptation to fall for the lures of technology is increasing.
These devices offer us a world of images that, if used unwisely, can seduce us away from truly engaging with the world and each other in a very real and human way. This is also a common occurrence in cafes and restaurants and I have even seen highchairs with iPads built into the trays. In this instance, as parents we may think we are engaging with another in a deep and meaningful way but if our child is ‘checking out’ in our presence for the sake of convenience then I would question the nature of the connection we think we are having with the other person. This is not to say that we should never let our children use iPads but we do need to be very astute as to why we are handing such devices over to them, particularly at such a young age. There is more at play here than simply keeping the child quiet and if we are not careful we allow our children to become fashioned in a way that is not true to who they are and then because ‘everyone else is doing it’ it then becomes our so not normal ‘norm’.
I loved reading this article. Life without electricity brings to us a possibility of how to live life that we do not normally allow ourselves to explore.
For kids (and adults) there I nothing lovelier than playing, interacting and enjoying the big outdoors. Kids thrive and come alive in this environment… what a contrast to heads down and being closed in on a computer or tablet. What impact does this have on their physical bodies, mind and general development?
I love watching and hearing kids play. Often the kids on our street come and all jump and play games on our trampoline in our front yard. Very awesome. And makes me smile.
Haha, that´s the true attitude.
Like most temporal inventions we can use technology to support or hinder our evolution.
Simple, true and well said Michael.
All those beautiful things that you did with your daughter Johanna, during the electricity cut, are things we could all do any time, we just have to choose – it is crazy that we have to wait for a cut to do those things.
We often do fun things like this together but I’m sure for many these types of activities were not there as a consideration. Getting out and about to fill in the time and entertain the kids I noticed was quite popular.
Thank you Richard.
Interesting analogy that we take electricity and all that it provides for us for granted just we do with energy in general which we are mostly ignorant or unaware of, ie the fact that everything is energy and impulsed by energy and nothing physical would be without energy.
So much we take for granted that only when we have to do without out that we get to recognize and appreciate its values and what it actually means to us. Now and then it is very healing and honouring to take a moment to feel what otherwise seems normal and celebrate its true worth, especially the people in our life, ourselves included.
It sure is worth celebrating all that we have as often as possible. As you say if we don’t things just become ordinary and we take then for granted. I see this so often with people in my life that after a while you become acustomed to them rather than truly celebrating what they bring all of the time. The moment we do this we confirm and everything deepens and becomes even more glorious. It also stops any negative thoughts or feelings you may have let in about them, like they did not do this or that, as suddenly they go out the window when you allow yourself to feel the essence of another.
How much do we take for granted in our lives? I like the appreciation in this blog for technology and electricity, it has an important role in our lives, so why do we use it in a way that abuses ourselves and each other?
Not having electricity and technology is like going on a water diet or a huge detox program! You get the cravings, you get the edginess, you get the malaise, even the sweats for some (!) etc. This is very revealing of our current societal dependencies/addictions, and a little scary to consider especially with the youth so ‘hooked’ with screens these days – where are we headed? And yet the answers are so simple and not that hard to apply should we choose to do so – take the IT and electricity ‘fast’ as an opportunity to simply develop a relationship with self and those around us, and key here is the quality of the relationship that matters most.
There is something very special about sitting in the dark with candles on and connecting with another. It’s not necessarily about the environment being right but more about the no distraction. The truth is when we have theses opportunities we love the fact that we have no distraction and we get to be together.
Electricity gives us an enormous seeming advance when it comes to our standard of living and our ability to connect with others and the world at large. Clearly it can be used to our actual advancement, or to our detriment and I would say these two potentials have become decidedly confused. What a delightful sounding day Johanna and a beautiful connection with your daughter.
I was feeling this so strongly today Johanna. I was early meeting partner in the city, and as I stood by a big train station I could feel how normally I would get on my phone to check an email or look on social media. But then I decided ‘no I’m not going to do that’ and just stood and watched all the people walk by, observing the cars and crowds drift past like they were clouds. I realised in this just how much I love this, enjoying and appreciating life and space. I felt slight pangs of withdrawals from the phone which seemed to being calling me to check it (!) but I did not. Instead I savoured the moment In the middle of the city. Although I did end up getting it out (to take a video) it made me appreciate so much the beauty and richness that is right there if we are just willing to stop, observe and be present with life.
I love people watching! Awesome sharing Joseph. Thank you. How amazing is our awareness that when we allow ourselves to feel, we can actually unpack the layers.
Yes I can imagine that I would have felt the same, electricity being cut off……yikes!! What am i going to do? I am so reliant on my phone that I can’t even imagine what it would be like not to have it. But I imagine also that I would adapt and allow other ways of being to present and probably be quite surprised as to what could unfold.
We can use technology as an amazing tool to assist us – or to check out, distract and entertain us. It is the quality of our beingness that truly counts.
It does no harm to experience a power cut now and again, as it allows us to see how reliant on technology we have become, and to show us our lack of appreciation – there is a distinct feeling when the lights get turned back on.
There is an abundance of joy and vitality in life for us all just waiting to be tapped into. All we have to do is connect to it.
Sometimes I feel like all the technology around us today is good, but that it does not confirm the being inside – the being part of being a human-being. And I wonder if this leaves us feeling a bit lost, or out of sorts because deep down we all know what makes us who we are and to have something missing perhaps encourages what is not us but something else, ruling our lives and making things complicated.
There are so many things we take for granted, that we rely upon. How amazing to have the opportunity to look at life without electricity, for everyone to see there can be real and meaningful conversations, connections and “old fashioned” relationships built that go beyond the computer screen.
And even for some the tension felt at this time, with no electricity, was a blessing. As it exposed the unease that was there when there was no devices letting people feel the relationships and activities around them. Sometimes situations give us a greater awareness even if they are uncomfortable – then we are offered a moment to make a change.
It is amazing how much appreciation for things we can share when we are forced into doing with out something so seemingly important and fundamental we are so used to and take for granted . A very beautiful learning shared on technology tv etc and where we are at as a society today and our true values and connection with each other.
Looking for distraction via our tablets, computers and TV we actually counter what we are truly seeking, which is forming deep connections with others.
For me it was always interesting to watch couples, families, friends etc when they would go to the coffee shop where I worked and how their phones played in their interactions – sometimes it was fascinating how often people used their phones and were not truly engaging with who ever was with them.
It is gorgeous that you have been deliberately and lovingly taken care of parameters to ensure your that your family are comfortable to hang out and interact with one another without relying on technology.
We often use things to avoid facing what we are feeling and the responsibility of doing something about it. My favourite for years was TV and DVDs, and now I notice surfing and social media can distract me incredibly efficiently if I let it. When dependency and addictive behaviour shows in relationship to anything, be it technology or anything else, it is a sure sign that something in our life needs attention.
“We as a family are quite comfortable now to hang out, chat, do little projects together and interact without the distraction or noise of technology in the background.” Congratulations! That is a milestone moment in any family in this day and age. I am working towards this one and it is inspiring to hear that it is possible.
In the comments section Susie W makes a great point about how humanity needs to find a way to live that is in harmony with everything around us which includes having meaningful relationships, enjoying nature etc. Technology can support us with this but only to a point, for example we can Skype a friend who lives overseas but we still have to learn how to connect with ourselves and then with others first and foremost to even be able to have a friend to connect with. Going forward we need to invest in people and not in having greater and faster technology. What would be the point for example of being able to send a person to Mars if we are not able to connect with another single human being on this planet?
“what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?” Isn’t giving children a lot of access to games, internet and iPhones, laptops and tv in order to not have to parent them in full and to fill an emptiness not the same as a quick fix of sugar in the afternoon when we are tired? It works for a short term but what happens on a long term is more tiredness than we often started of with. This is worrying for the future when the children who now rely so much on distractions will have to be part of life and live with each other, what will the ‘after effect’ of technology be?
Technology can bring people far away closer together but perhaps it is more prominently a tool to distance ourselves from those closest by.
If for the next hundred years or so it looks like we’ll be relying more and more on technology, is it not incredibly important to find a way now where humanity can still LIVE and have real relationships, instead of the internet, gaming, social media, tech addiction we are seeing today?
It seems that many of us are still in the excitement of having a ‘new toy’, e.g. phones, computers, tech that can do xyz for us, which is great but after a number of decades with this kind of technology is it not time to develop a way we can still live enriched lives with incredible relationships, do amazing work and enjoy nature etc., not relying completely on technology.
I had a period of time traveling when I left school , part of this involved living in a cave with no phone, no tele, no heating etc. and I can remember the very real feeling of letting go of all the imposing pictures and judgements I had let in through television.
When we observe the media we are watching we are actually letting it mould us into something that is far removed from who we are.
I now watch tele (not much as I do not own a tele) but when I do I am far more discerning and by staying connected I observe and not absorb.
Back in the seventies we had power cuts as I think at that stage there was a rumour the world was running out of oil or something, we also had carless days where on a certain day of your choosing you could drive your car, I feel we should play with these ideas these days to make people see how reliant we have become on power and technology. That would really freak the gamers out.
Great suggestion Kev. We lived in PNG with no TV when I was growing up till about the age of 8. So I lived outside and I am so grateful for the opportunity this foundation gave me. The ever changing scenes of the tropics was my tv screen and I loved feeling me within it, and not checking-out and numbing myself to TV. This came later when we moved to Australia. However I have moved away from it again in my life and it’s the best decision I ever made because it brought me back into my life with much more presence and quality.
This is a great study on how dependent on electronic devices we have allowed ourselves to become, forever reaching for our mobile phones, a tablet or laptop to give us … what exactly? No wonder they are now trying to implant them into the human flesh; no wonder maybe, but also a huge disservice to humankind.
Yes as I write this comment on my computer I can see the sun just beginning to rise. I check the time on my mobile phone beside me and pause. Taking a break now and watching this magnificence before me…
At a family barbecue today I watched a two year old repeatedly unlocking an iPhone, accessing the apps to find videos of her favourite films and programmes. A marvel in one way that someone so young can operate technology so easily and yet something darker in how disengaged she become with life around her doing this and a little hooked on what she wanted to watch. This was only allowed for a short time however I can see that without some limitations the relationship with technology can be very unhealthy. Adults are no different in how they relate to it. Maybe we all need a power cut now and again to check in with where we are all at.
I remember a time when there were no mobile phones, and even before then when we didn’t even have a house phone. How things have changed, but back them we still managed to meet up with each other for appointments/dates etc. I do have a mobile and am very attached to it, but I can see how we often miss out on connecting with each other when our heads are down looking at our screens.
The fact we all can openly discuss needing to detox from technology, switch off, maybe take a holiday where there is no WIFI or the opposite that we cannot live or be without our phones, is very interesting and clearly shows that we know our relationship with technology isn’t right and in some cases we try and remedy this but often it is a quick fix short term solution. I found that my habit of checking social media before bed, often making me more tired and late to bed, was not budging and I kept returning to it – that was until just recently I began to clock why it was that suddenly at that time of night or more importantly, at that time in my rhythm, social media suddenly hooked me. Is it possible that I resist the surrender, the repose of sleep and the time preparing for sleep, just being with myself, letting the day go? is it possible this technology time just as I am getting ready for bed disrupts this flow towards greater stillness and surrender in preparation for sleep so I don’t have to go there and feel it? And is it possible that then my tiredness is less related to staying up later and more connected to my resistance to let go and the push to go back into motion and activity at the end of my day?
Thank you for sharing Rebecca. Instead of trying to not use our phones just before bed with pure mind-force and discipline it is wise to look at what we are actually avoiding in that moment when we choose something enticing over a moment with ourselves. I can so relate to this. Great support thanks.
It is lovely to feel your appreciation of your use of space in this article, it is like you are really aware of how you use your time, with a purpose and a joy….time is not slipping away or running away from you, there is a flow and a steadiness, along wth the power failure…which offered a space to reflect.
What did we do before technology? I remember watching the original Star Trek in 1966, and there was an episode of a planet that created anything you thought of, that had some disastrous results. In the end, it was a holiday planet for a highly technically evolved race. The reason for this resort was ‘the more complex the person, the greater the need to play.’
Years ago I would have been lost if the power were cut and I couldn’t watch tv, and would have had to arrange to go out or to a movie so that I could still get my fix of distractions and numbing. Nowadays, there is no pull to watch tv at all which is a big one for me.
How much are we missing out through our use of technology? It seems an enormous amount. From where I live I can see many apartments and the flicker of a TV light is constant, almost on all the time in many homes. The space and quiet we are robbed of through TV and technology is often not noticed, simply because there is no space or quiet allowed.
I recently misplaced my phone and it was a great experience because I was able to detect the frequency that I would get the idea to go and check it, but it was not there….a great habit to kick and something now that I am more aware of since finding it once more. It felt interesting to feel the freedom there, when I thought of looking for it, but it wasn’t there, I focussed on the present more rather than what might be happening.
Reading your blog allows me to stop and appreciate the time spent in true relationship with friends and family. Technology can support us to live life when we use it with respect and not as a way of distraction. So many young people are missing out by only having a relationship that is surreal and does not allow for a connection to our inner heart. The more we can share and express with one another the more beautiful the world feels, as we begin to learn to connect back to our innate and natural way of being with one another, and realise just how awesome we are as we build a life that expands and allows others the reflection of harmony and love. Life feels so amazing when we truly connect.
Technology, is like money it can be used either for great harm or great good. The choice is ours.
Great wisdom. It would serve us well to stop once in a while assess how we are using technology and its impact on not only ourselves but also the whole of life.
The effect games and Tv are having on our children are quite severe if my daughter is anything to go by. They do change her personality, never for the better so the more we limit her time on them the better.
This blog shows that everything in life can be a friend or a foe. It is up to each of us to choose the quality in which we use what is available, including all change whether momentary or ongoing. This has been a beautiful opportunity to reflect and deeply appreciate everything that comes to us.
Well said Johanna, we can easily miss the simple and beautiful moments in life if we bury our head in technology – like everything in life technology can be used in a way that offers evolution or used in a way to reduce and dull our awareness.
Technology is perceived as proof of evolution, however, it is in fact in the way it abused, as you demonstrate Johanna, it is a distraction that delays and obstructs true evolution.
Technology can either be used to advance us or to distract our self and check out from life. We need to be continually observing how and why we are using technology.
I work in a building that has one of the largest numbers of tourists visit it every year. I am asked questions daily I had a student yesterday ask my assistance in helping her find a Free WiFi connection on her phone, that felt like the same anxiety of having lost their child in the crowd. Smartphones have been around for less than 20 years, how have we allowed them to become a crutch we can not move without them?
The supplier of the mobile phone network I use had an outage today in the area where I work and I must admit that I loved it – there is a simplicity in dealing with what is in front of you only and not always having the interference which can be possible through our technology.
Yes, Johanna, what indeed are we missing out on when we do not fill our days with love and connection?
What your pointing out Johanna is bigger than we are willing to be aware of and accept — it is a normal everyday part of life how technology is a ‘go to’ vice to not feel what is going on in our bodies. It’s ironic how we go to the next thing / latest technology instead of responding to our bodies that are asking us to go deeper…
Learning to prepare in advance for what is comes our way is a great help, particularly when your way of living supports you to go through it.
There is much to be appreciated about electricity, but I equally can appreciate the planning you did to prepare for the day and then the delight that followed out of the simplicity created.
More and more of our life is being moved onto a screen – It makes me wonder what our future will be like if it continues this way. I think that we may continue down this path but eventually we will have to make a U-turn, because we will find we cannot replace human interaction, contact and love with a screen.
It is incredible where the use of technology has gone to, the amount of distraction that it has in peoples lives. I consciously make sure I have limited amount of time on it but sometimes it can so easily be extended. What is even more interesting and serious is the amount of abuse that can happen online these days and it is considered to be normal and acceptable.
I really appreciate where this blog took us and the gorgeous day that unfolded for you both. It was a reminder to find the beautiful in all that is before us.
It was absolutely an opportunity to feel the beauty in the simplicity when the complexity was taken away. It makes me wonder just how much of true living and interactions we allow ourselves to miss out on when we make life so complicated and busy.
From reading this article, I felt like the opportunity that was reflected upon offered space, space is something many of us think we do not have, but, if we allow ourselves to let go of some of the stuff that fills up our life and distracts us that is exactly what we do have, heaps of lovely expansive space.
Reading about how you spent your day without electricity leads me to consider that this way of living could be the normal or natural way to live even with electricity around.
I wonder what it would be like if we had a technology free day every week, maybe on a weekend which would open up more opportunities to appreciate our relationships and the beauty all around us. It is unlikely that this would ever happen of course, but it feels super important to consider, as Johanna has done here, what the quality of our lives would be like, so that we can be more responsible and aware with our use of technology.
I observed a woman with a three-ish year old that was waiting for a taxi. The small boy had one of those harnesses that you put on children with the attached dog/child lead connected to the harness. The child was playing with his kid proofed tablet. Is this what we are allowing technology to do to our children today? How tethered and oblivious to the world around us are we all becoming? How lost will we be when the power goes off.
Technology has become a portable babysitter. Something to keep kids quiet in transporting them or attending events. However we are actually plugging them into a grid of poison and of being checked out. Kids are also being trained to not know how to be, how to interact with others and to isolate in worlds that are not reality. A great injustice we are as a society doing o our children – parents, teachers and all alike.
I know how much looking at my phone, having it on me and being able to check it and use it as a shield in awkward situations has become a big crutch. I was actually in town recently and left my phone in a shop, and didnt realise until some time later on the other side of town – after the initial panic of wondering where it was, I was actually a little suprised it took me so long to reach for it in my pocket, so much has our phones become like another limb.
I could imagine how spacious and beautiful a day without any electricity would have been!
I agree Johanna, it is truly amazing how much technology can consume our time and fill the space with activity that is not really meaningful.
There is so much beauty in appreciation… especially when we appreciate the simple things in life – those small details that make a huge difference in our day.
You’ve touched on something very important Johanna here with what you mention about doing ‘purposeful work’ on the computer and not using the gift of electricity for excessive entertainment. If we live our lives purposefully, when things happen, such as power cuts and so much more, we can take it in our stride much much easier. But if we are wanting to check out, escape, have copious down-time, that demand is not met when a power cut takes place and we find ourselves lost.
Our quality of life is determined not by whether we have electricity or not, but by the quality of choices we make – whether these come from love which is akin to responsibility or not.
Life today is so different growing up to how it used to be. Children today do not know life without their phones. It is a scary thought that they do not know how to live life without them. An electricity cut is a great reality check that everyone can learn from.
Yes. Just as many of us grew up with playing outside being the normal and very common way to be – I literally could not have imagined life without playing outside – this also applies to the kids of today – they could not imagine and do not know life without technology.
Technology used with purpose is a great tool, but as you could say with anything, if used to distract, checkout, and disconnect from the world it is damaging on so many levels as the world misses what we have to offer and we in turn miss being in the livingness of life.
And that’s just it. Are we missing being in the Livingness of life through the way we use technology or are we expressing the Livingness of life through the tool of technology.
I always love it when the power goes out. The fridge stops whirring , the everything goes quiet , and I reflect on how ‘busy’ we can be.
There are times when we have gone camping – and during this time there is little to no electricity to rely on. Here you get to feel how we all, adults and children alike, go through an electricity detox – the habits of wanting to reach for the computer or phone when we are not sure what else to do, the seeking of the TV, the seeking of a hot shower or dishwasher etc. But what a wonderful feeling when that tension lets off and we surrender to just being in nature and working with what is there for us to work with! You can almost ‘see’ the shift – it is palpable both in children and adults and you can feel the connection coming back first through people’s eyes!
Yes I can relate to this experience. I have also come to appreciate that it is important to feel the tension or uncomfortableness as feeling this allows us to feel the ill effects, allows an honesty and a choice of how we want things to be with each other moving forward.
Joanna, this is brilliant – I love how you have exposed the fact that electricity and hence technology does seem to run a large part of our lives. And so it is that we have built up this reliance on electricity and technology with all that we do and need to get done, but as you have exposed, there is so much more to it and this is ‘the other side’ of quasi-addiction. How often do we see people just walking around on their phones or sitting at a cafe looking at their phones despite being surrounded by other people. Rather than being a tool for connection, technology can become a tool for distraction and this hinges on our access to electricity. It is not electricity itself that has a ‘dark side’, rather it is how we use the electricity that can bring a dark side to our lives, or on the contrary be there to support us and the connection amongst us.
It is crazy how we have become so reliant on technology and when we don’t have it, we seem to have melt downs. Its like when kids miss behave and their mobile phones are taken away, they have such a melt down, with tantrums and abusive behavior. So what has gone wrong here… lack of interactions with kids so they seek other means to keep themselves busy.
What stood out for me was the time you spent with your daughter and how you described it
“I got to work side by side with my daughter while I listened to her humming along beautifully. I got to listen to her cute stories and appreciate her lovely way of communicating. I love the detail in her words and it is so great to feel a child comfortable and fully expressing themselves.”
There is nothing more rewarding than listening to a child or teenager who is able to fully express themselves, no holding back it is quite magical. From my own experience children get crushed by their families and Education to such an extent that they are unable to voice what they really want to say and this can lead to a withdrawal from life.
Very true Mary. Our education system is a large part of this crushing; however it is also something that we as humans have developed. We also need to look at why we over centuries have created and fed something to crush who we naturally are.
A lot of us take for granted the things we have in daily life and don’t really think of them at all until they don’t work or are gone and electricity is no exception. We take our cars for granted until they won’t start and we seriously take our bodies for granted until something goes wrong like breaking a bone so we can’t walk or a sickness that stops us.
And the escaping illness and disease rates that we are seeing in society today are very much proof of this Kevin. A great point you make. Some people fight hard for raising money and research for this and that but very few people seem to link the importance of honouring ourselves, our bodies and deeply self caring to live our true power to be preventative to the mess.
Johanna, powerful to read how you responded to an announced electricity cut: acceptance and preparation, with care, detail and attention. Consequently, you and your daughter found ways to enjoy your day and learned to appreciate how much we’re supported by electricity.
You take away all the distraction and you are going to find out very quickly if there is any real connection with other people; whether that is just yourself, your immediate family or the neighbourhood. It you go into serious meltdown, you’ve got to read that, and what is really going on.
Why have we become so reliant on technology? Remember when there were no mobile phones? I do, life worked well without them, now we cannot seem to live with out them even for a moment.
Yes, well said Mary-Louise! Our children have mobile phones these days, but I remember my very first mobile phone that I got when I was 28 years old and it was just one to make phone calls with – no fancy interactive screen! And the spooky part is that children born these days seem to know how to operate a mobile phone with apps and I have noticed the ease they take to with computers!
‘What kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?’ Indeed, Johanna, this is a concern… for such addiction to be embedded and to be so lost without it doesn’t say much for interpersonal skills and independent play.
Spending more time with children and truly interacting with them is missing a lot in families these days. Parents are under so much pressure either self inflicted or chosen and don’t really have space for quality time with them it seems, and so use technology from phones, ipads and computers to keep them entertained. Parents are under the pull of emotional love with their children and won’t say no and use the excuse that they really love it. The feeling of being responsible for their entertainment and pleasure is strong.
Technology and electricity are great developments we have made, but also they can keep us from feeling the truth and we often operate them as if we would be guided by a foreign computer in our head or an energy which does not allow us to feel ourselves and bodies anymore.
Yes to feel what it is like to know have connection, technology connection that is. We are so used to having technology around us all the time that we find it very hard to let go and just be without it all. So going back to basics, not having the phone, or computer or tv going sounds like a very lovely way to spend the day or evening.
Thanks, Johanna. It’s so beautiful to read the account of your day with your daughter technology free. Spending time together in that quality is precious, and something we should always make time for.
Technology is the ‘systematic treatment’ of anything. Do we believe it only means computers! What about our toothbrush! How long has this silent tech been replacing what used to require input from us and what have we done with all this extra time? Have we settled for comfort, pushed ourselves harder or evolved?
We rely on technology to the detriment of our own lives. Technology has become the thing we go to now for relief rather than to humanity and the support we can offer each other.
Technology like anything can either support or hinder us. It all depends on our connection or disconnection with self that truly measures our reliance on this amazing technology or appreciation for what it can truly offer. Technology is a valuable tool when we appreciate its power source and the connection it can then offer. Thank you Johanna a great blog indeed.
I find it very interesting how in general we can consider ourselves to be in a more advanced way of living because of all the technological advances that are now a part of our everyday lives. But I am also sure that how ever many hundreds of years ago when there were not these inventions, there was still the same family dynamics, work place struggles, people feeling lost or disconnected, women unhappy with their body image and men feeling the pressure to preform. I do not doubt that things may have been simpler pre-electricty and possibly harder, but I also reckon that many of the inner struggles we see happening today have been around for a long time and this is what technology cannot address, this is up to us.
Just on a practical note – it seems that there are some advantages to having a garage door that is not controlled by electricity, and that being that the car is not trapped in the garage if the power goes off unaccountably.
I’ve put myself on programs of not using online and technology, sometimes I have limited myself to only x amount of times using what every platform it is and boy at times have I found it testing and difficult. Then I got to see that when I was online I was a lot more focused and productive in how I was working with them than before where I was not really paying any attention.
What a great tip about how to ensure we are focused and productive when we are on line and in fact engaging with anything. It is not the technology itself that is the issue, it is the embracing of purpose or the lack of it when we are engaging with technology that ends up supporting or debilitating us.
There is a great harmony and flow with what is described here which is very gorgeous: how you observed the new wooden electrical poles and what that means, the playful relationship with it such as enjoying seeing the big machinery at work, and also how beautifully you prepared your whole family for the day. It meant a day that is often challenging and complicated for most people was so simple, enjoyable and honouring of everyone.
It is interesting how often we can push that it is the children that are in need of the internet access yet how often do we see parents panicking in car parks and shopping centres when they are about to do the weekly shop and they can’t get the phone ready to distract the child in the pram or stroller.
It’s everyone. One just has to go into a train and see the burying people do. If they are not falling asleep, checking out into air people are on their phones. It’s rare to see a vital person, bright eyed and ready to engage on the trains, usually the exceptions are toddlers.
Technology has not truly advanced us when you consider the quality of the world we live in today.
So true Victoria. Mind you, I love what technology brings but like anything it can be used responsibily or it can be abused and used as a way to avoid person to person connections and being out in the world.
We as a society seem to go down the abuse path more often than use responsibly path first before we realise ‘oh this isn’t the way’ yet in that meantime much damage and delay has occurred as a result.
I also love what technology allows for and I use it daily. Though as you mention when used to avoid the personal connection and relationships with each other it is not truly serving us.
Technology is amazing; it is our addition to it that is the real issue. Why are we constantly looking to distract ourselves and what are we avoiding feeling? A blackout offers us pause to consider what we fill our lives up with and what we may also be missing out on.
This can be said with most things in the world. Everything is amazing if used for a true purpose yet human beings seem to always use things to avoid their grandness and depth as distraction or numbness and so on.
We like to be ‘connected’ all the time through technology… yet, if we are anxious without it, reveals that we’re not connected with ourselves firstly – and so are therefore relying on technology to distract ourselves with interactions with others, that are actually void of the quality and depth of us.
Kylie this is a great point you make about being anxious without technology, just shows how we have been living with relying on technology to distract ourselves with interactions with others. This is so much more common amongst young kids as they feel they are not being heard or they don’t have anything important to say.
Therefore if we are not connected to ourselves first, it is impossible to be connected with others. It just shows how then technology is used to be with ourselves and then also avoid true connection with others. It’s made this surface level of replacement connection the common and acceptable norm yet it is causing so much damage to us as a whole.
Beautiful blog and a point worth pondering on – how we have lost connection with simplicity.
And the bodies are very much showing the choices of being with the complexity.
I love how you appreciate having this time without electricity to connect with what is going on in your community and with your family – times like this are a blessing, and an enforced stop for people. Like you, some will embrace it whilst others will complain and struggle through it because they don’t want to feel what not having their technology go tos brings up for them.
It can be so very revealing. I am noticing a lot of differences in children when I go into many different schools. I am noticing more fidgeting, more unrest and unease and difficulty to just sit, to listen, to engage. then when students are given iPads etc or laptops this unrest in the body seems to stop but is replaced with a vacantness like they are ‘plugged in’. I can literally see the poison of this and the effects.
Your preparation and readiness for the day shows that there is no need to be thrown by the lack of electricity, it really set you in good stead to enjoy the day and even deepen your observation and understanding.
When there is no TV or internet availability, there is a wonderful opportunity to actually sit and communicate and connect with others of all ages on a deeper level.
Yes, Johanna, it is the countless missed moments of connection that makes technology an ill in our society. If it was used to expand and deepen our connections it would be a great resource.
We have created a generation of ‘I Want’ children. Times have never been better because of technology. Everything that has been required has always been there, and now it is available where ever you are! There are apps for everything. Who needs to know how to read a map today? What is the purpose of mirrors when we have a phone to put on makeup. What happens we get unplugged, our battery dies and heaven forbidding the dreaded, we lose signal and become lost, for we have never used the compass that has always been inside of us.
Yes. Great point. For the rich and playful life then technology is a tool for purpose – and for the empty needy or functioning life then it is used to fill the gaps of not being in connection with oneself and others.
Technology can be such a blessing if used for a true purpose, the problem is that most of the time it is used as a distraction and to check out, and if technology is used in this way it does nothing but harm for both ourselves and society.
What’s interesting about technology is that we rely so heavily on it, but at any time the networks, internet and programs we’ve trusted with our information, data, lives and lifestyles could crash… Do we have backups? Not just for information, but for how we communicate and connect with people, our relationships and everything else?
What a beautiful account, Johanna. It is so true that relationships are nowadays often not a top priority because there is something more enticing to occupy us, such as watching tv, going on social media etc. It is very concerning to imagine what the world will be like in twenty years if the children of today do not grow up with deep and meaningful relationships as a part of their everyday lives.
There is much that we use in every day life that we don’t quite appreciate fully, electricity being one of them.
We can become so reliant on energy sources that we sometimes just take them for granted, not necessarily thinking to question who is supplying it or how it is generated. This applies not only to our homes, appliances and vehicles but also to us in the choice of quality we choose followed by every other choice following this. This shows us that we are not to take energy for granted and to be discerning in our choices and understanding of it.
Funny that it takes the electricity being disconnected to expose how reliant so many are on using it to distract themselves rather than connecting with each other as your family did.
I often wonder what would happen if our whole electronic system collapsed, and it feels like it would be chaos. It would certainly take a long time for people to reconnect with lost skills, lose their dependency on instant communication, and take responsibility for many things they now take for granted are provided for them. This loss of responsibility for what we do, the choices we make and willingness to always choose the easy option to make things comfortable for ourselves is the most insidious element of all. We end up in the captivity of the material world, and lose connection with our true selves, unable to take charge and stop the magnifying of all that is being lived in this energy. If technology collapsed then what we have lost would be made very apparent with an opportunity to reconnect.
A day without to get a true sense of where everyone is at with regards to being connected to themselves and to others is a great reflection to ascertain where we are truly at. You prepared well Johanna and it worked for all your family – awesome. I wonder though how it may have been for people that did not prepare and make a lovely day out of it like you did, celebrating your togetherness with each other. ..
Very awesome blog Johanna, and yes so true – at least for me, as I just expect all technology to work all of the time, and have not given thought or appreciation what is required for it to be so, or for the people working at it so that we do have this. A day without seems a great way to connect to the bigger picture too as in how much we do take for granted and how little we acknowledge all that needs to happen for it to be so.
Why do we seek to numb ourselves and to distract ourselves from connecting with our own families? We are creating a world where we can be in a house and be in our own little bubbles and not speak to anyone. Our relationship with the screen characters we let into our lives are 1 dimensional, we control and we are able to predict their behaviour. It does not develop or evolve us.
What an amazing opportunity for us to build quality relationships with each other, cut off the power and we get to see how we live without technology. I would find this very hard but also a great opportunity.
As I read this I am in a tram with many others also on their phones doing all sorts of things. Makes me wonder what we would do without technology… perhaps we would have more of an opportunity to connect and be open to each other as we are not so lost in the world of tech.
Johanna a simple and yet oh so rich sharing. I loved the little snapshot that you gave us of your life and your family and your love of cranes and machinery as well as your appreciation for electricity are priceless.
‘How much are we really missing out on because of our overuse and excessiveness in technology? It is the reliance on technology and our belief that we cannot manage without it that I am reflecting on. There are times I have left home to go to work and have forgotten my mobile phone and every moment until I can get it my mind is (literally) occupied by what I might be missing out on or not responding to, yet the truth is that when I have my mobile phone with me it is occupying a very big chunk of me and blocking my true connection to myself and to others.
There was a time, not so long ago, when I vowed I would never own a smart phone. I couldnt see the need. For years I only used a moblie phone so that my children could contact me if they needed to, and they were pretty much the only ones who had my number! How things change. I do now own a smart phone and use it as my main phone line, along with easy email access. We can find ourselves getting so swept up in growing trends and the demands of daily life, that before we know it we too are joining the masses. But we can still choose to use it with discernment.
I love your sharing – it is so true that we have become so reliant on technology and all that is driven by electricity. The simplicity of life more connected to nature has been lost.
A few years ago we were staying the weekend with some friends. After dinner we were talking about going out or watching a movie – my friend then came down with four small canvasses and some paint. We spent the evening painting. It was so entertaining and fun – other than the lighting, no electricity needed.
How much fun! My family played an art game the other day where we had 5 mins of each rotating over and over of being the model for the others to sketch. We came up with the many great sketches and it was a lot of fun- amazing to see our different flavours in drawing too. No technology needed at this moment.
What a beautiful thought provoking blog to reflect on our lives and the use of technology and the benefits of electricity for us to truly appreciate. The joy and appreciation you share for all that is going on around us and of the skills of works and the expertise that is all part of this never ceases to amaze me also and to admire all that we have in our lives also. I love your understanding of the importance of connection and true time together to talk and connect and bringing this quality back into our lives and to see the direction we are all going in other wise which really does make sense. True change can only come from the appreciation of what is really true and taking responsibility ourselves with the reflection and inspiration of another way.
It’s important here not to blame technology or electricity or social media or anything like that for the way we live and the choices we make. In fact they are awesome tools that, if used correctly can bring the world together and support a harmony and greater understanding of all of our brothers. However, that relies on our responsible use of them and that is where we are going wrong. So, let’s make sure that we are taking responsibility here, rather than blaming the ‘messenger’.
Yes true Otto – we are actually calling for it to be the way it is which is a choice. It is also important for us to have the understanding of what it’s like for young ones when that is the world and lack of level of engagement they are brought into – then how important is us taking the responsibility to connect and use these devices with purpose and true responsibility. The reflection is well needed.
And thus the life skill becomes bringing the stillness to the technology, rather than the technology running us.
Oh this is lovely Otto – “… he life skill becomes bringing the stillness to the technology…” This is awesome and something we can all ponder upon deeply as in how to implement this in our daily lives.
My feeling is that electricity has big purpose like computers in workplaces and a lot of machines in hospitals need electricity, but often it is used as mere distraction. How would it be if there would be an electricity limit for nonpurposeful use of it. Perhaps people would become more open again to interact with each other.
That’s a brilliant idea!
I notice while reading this blog I am not fully aware of what is going on for many people as I wondered ‘when your phone or laptop is charged it easily goes for a day right??’. After reading this blog I can see for many people it is not like this and they have to re-charge their phone during the day. It is great to be aware of what is going on and I am also wondering how our future is going to look if now we are already so dependant on phones, games, distractions…
If we listen to and accept what we are shown at these crossroads in life, we will accelerate our evolution. And these crossroads can come in many guises – from something as minor as a power cut for a day to something as major as cancer. The true life skill is hearing and reading these moments and then making the heralded changes.
It can be quite a shock when we don’t have our computers, phones or tablets to engage with the world, but a healthy one to experience as it brings it home to us how much people and the quality of our relationships with others and our selves really matter in this world.
And let us not forget that many people living in this world do not have electricity beamed into their homes. ‘The total number of individuals without electric power is put at about 1.5 billion, or a quarter of the world’s population, concentrated mostly in Africa and southern Asia’. Many live simple lives in rural communities and depend on wood and charcoal for heating and cooking and lamps for light. For many in in these countries, their daily experience is poor quality and intermittent electricity supply. Electricity cuts are a daily experience and planning their days according to when electricity is supplied a daily ritual. Not only do we take our reliance on electricity for granted, we also take our privilege and comfort as westerners living affluently.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electricity-gap-developing-countries-energy-wood-charcoal/
Thank you so much Joe for sharing your beautiful experience without electrical power. I am living in a city and even if it is night it is always bright because of all the lights. When I am in the countryside I am realizing how dark it is naturally in the night. We really live a bit of an artificial life in our cities including all the electronic distractions we have. Perhaps a day off electronic power would be a good idea to make us a bit more humble.
Yes I would say so Ariana. As I read your comment I also had the image of people walking through amazing scenery yet can’t appreciate the magic around them because they have their head down and are so focussed and driven to complete the walk. This is a way of being that can happen in many situations or environments where our focus is not with being present in the moment and appreciating that. Presence with ourselves and what we do brings such an awareness and joy and connection and interaction with those around us.
‘But then, when there is a reliance on something, what happens when it is taken away? We are of course left to feel how much we rely on it.’ – not only how much we rely on it, but also how we feel in our body when it’s not there to distract us – for me this is the real reflection. Can we be honest about how our body feels without the distraction of technology? What, if anything, are we drawn to do without it?
‘We as a family are quite comfortable now to hang out, chat, do little projects together and interact without the distraction or noise of technology in the background.’ – very beautiful to feel the loving connection that you all share with each other, Johanna, and that this is your norm.
Love this photo we’ve all seen and experienced before (!) for its multi-messages – there are so many ways to view or see it (that red ‘plug in’ sign) in relation to life or what one is going through at the time of loss of power supply/battery like for example – depletion, change or switch energy (supply), confirming the quality or pace of life being lived, discard, or rest.
When my children were young we lived in the country without TV for seven years, the children had hobbies that they shared with each other and animals to look after, and nature to roam around and play in, we loved our day to day living and interacting with each other, but of course that was in the seventies, where TV was the only distraction. I can relate to the enjoyable time you had with your daughter on your no electricity day.
‘I realised that we do not appreciate just how much we need and use electricity when it is in rich supply. How much we actually take it for granted.’ – I agree, it is very interesting to observe what is going on for us humans when something we take for granted is taken away from us and certainly a great way to find out whether or not we ourselves have any attachments to it or are we able to surrender to that which is presenting itself to us in that situation.
An important question to ask is,
Is all this technology and conveniences really improving our quality of life?
There are many instances in human history were we have just accepted all the advancements without really looking at the big picture. Remember that most decisions in our world are made around money not is it truly good for mankind.
Responsibility is the key word. What we desire the world will give us.
I like your point Ken: “Remember that most decisions in our world are made around money not is it truly good for mankind.” Would we design computergames that are about shooting other people when we would take the health and wellbeing of mankind in consideration? Would we have all the sugary foods? As you say these choices are not just up to the government but to all of us, do we feel worthy of true care and love in every way for ourselves?
We prepare for power cuts and freak out about not having access to technology as if the world is ending, or we’re spending days on a deserted island! But for thousands of years we looked out into the world for things to do, spent time with people face to face and had no need for screens, so there must be a wealth of things we’re now missing out on because of our dependence on these forms of communication and distraction.
It is really interesting how much we do rely on electricity or the connection to the internet. Imagine if the world wide web went down for a day. Businesses would crash and people would go into crisis mode. It just goes to show how heavily we all rely on it.
For some it would be a true disaster, for example hospitals and other institutions that need electricity to support people in specific ways…
A great story Johanna. Anything can be a reason to connect – power cuts or just a moment, any moment.
Reminds me of stories from the Blitz in the UK during the Second World War – a ridiculous analogy some might say, but it is amazing how when our equilibrium is broken, there comes an opportunity for connection. And yet, how are we living that we need a major disaster (2nd World War) of a minor disaster (local power cut) to awaken us to that which we treasure the most – connection.
Love that- ‘any moment’ – indeed, any moment at all times.
That “there was also an anxious feeling” around not having access to devices simply shows that a) there is already a level of anxiety that people are living with and b) that we have become far too reliant on these gadgets as a form of distraction from a way of living that causes us the anxiousness in the first place.
Whilst technology fueled by electricity has become so much a part of our lives now removing it for a period of time does reveal what it may have begun to replace that we may have not noticed.
Reading this has reminded me of the power cuts we would have as children and how much fun they were. Off the TV would go and out would come the candles, we would all be together actually spending time together. Unfortunately it was a rarity for this to happen.
We so rely on electricity these days to the point of it bordering on addiction! Even those of us that don’t play games or use our mobile phones very much have the expectation that if we flip a switch the light or power will come on to use some gadget, such as boil the kettle or use the cleaner or air conditioner. I was impressed how organised you were Johanna and the difference it made to the enjoyment of your day.
Me too Roslyn, Johanna truly nailed it by observing, connecting and holding the space for all, just awesome,
You have inspired me to look at ways that I can prepare more for work, going away, specific events , I love the care and attention to detail you gave to preparing and how this then supported you to enjoy the day without feeling frustrated.
Take all these gadgets away and what are we left with? Our relationship with ourselves. Ditching some of the more obvious ones like the TV has definitely helped me to build a much richer relationship with myself and with everyone in my life. Maybe we need more electricity cuts to expose the weaknesses in our relationships and hence empower ourselves to mend the gaps and come together more.
Yes, Rowena. What is the point of avoiding ourselves? We will have to come back to the truth of who we are at some point.
Around a year ago, I lost my mobile phone, I had gone to the countryside without it and I was shocked with the panic and anxiety I felt by not having it. It felt like such a large part of me was missing and I realised how ridiculous this dependency is and how reliant I have become on needing it.
Interesting that you describe it as dependency – if we are out of range for a few days I found that much of the time the gap did not create any issues.
I can see that it is a dependency in many ways- we only have to look around to see how many people are glued to their mobile phone no matter where they are. Even when they go out together the phones are there and at a blink or a buzz everyone just grabs for their phones – yes, I would call that a dependency…
Yes electricity and modern technology is marvellous in many ways and we feel a loss when we are cut off from it, but does it have a side effect of cutting us off from each other and do we get as upset about that and why not?
Letting go of my TV was the best thing I ever did when I think of the hours I spent in front of a TV when there is so much of life that i can enjoy. I no longer need TV to fill a gap in my life, now I make it about people and enjoying that connection with them rather than a screen filled with senseless information.
It is great to stop and appreciate the ease of our lives with electricity but also consider where we use that ‘ease’ to be distracted and entertained, rather than fully living life. From the sounds of your electricity free day this gave you the opportunity to really be with each other which is a gift in itself.
Your sharing has made me aware that, yes we take electricity for granted just like we do a lot of other things in our daily lives and when it is taken away for some reason we feel how dependent we are and how we don’t appreciate how everything is working around us, like electricity but also how we have water in our houses, gas etc. This shows me we have a responsibility to use electricity and other technologies wisely and we don’t. Your last questions definitely need an answer and make us aware of the responsibility we have towards the future of us all; How much are we really missing out on because of our overuse and excessiveness in technology? How many moments with our children do we let slip through our fingertips and most importantly, what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?
Yes, we don’t appreciate how precious each moment with our children is, how joyful and enriched this time can be, I’m not saying that our children need us to be with them entertaining them all day but are we letting the quality of our relationships deteriorate because we are letting so many moments slip us by with distractions of one sort or another?
There was a time that we all lived without electricity. In terms of history it is a relatively new introduction. It’s scary how we have become so dependent on it. It has meant lifestyle changes in so many ways, many of which are great, but there is also value in knowing how to live without the distractions that electricity brings.
We do take things like having clean running water and electricity at the flick of a switch for granted. Many still live without theses conveniences. We also take for granted all the small everyday occurrences between ourselves and others. Jonhanna, your blog shows you have a big appreciation of life.
Hear hear – I second that Johanna – thank you for expressing your appreciation and attentiveness.
I just delight in the preparations that you made! Such awesome attention to detail and self-love – and then your appreciation of that. Ace moves. Love it.
As a child we loved watching Catweazle, a magician from Norman times cast into the twentieth century and encountered the then modern technology with the eyes of a child and magical. We loved his amazement and expressions he used: electricity became ‘electrickery’ and telephones ‘magic telebones’ that summoned the voices. Hilarious.
Beautiful to feel your appreciation for the support that electricity can provide us with whilst being aware of how easy it is to abuse it and use it to check out multiple times a day. Great to have this reflection of just how many aspects of our lives are dependent on it and consciously choose how much to utilise it rather than it being our default position. Thank you Johanna much to ponder on here.
I almost forget every time I switch on a light or turn on a computer that the electricity is coming from a source of power, from the grid and down the line someone is mining or operating machinery which produces the power we use so automatically. Same situation goes with buying clothes or devices, it doesn’t occur to me that these were handled by people but sometimes applying this consideration allows us to appreciate what our society is really like.
We take so many things for granted that are always there, to quote an old song ‘we don’t know what we’ve got till its gone’. Technology has moved so fast in my life time and it has indeed made the world a smaller place and electricity is the life blood of all that technology but if we get too hooked into all it has to offer and totally lose connection to ourselves we would actually be better off without any of it.
“I also got to appreciate (apart from how lovingly organised I am) how my family and I now live together in the world today, just from having the electricity cut for one day” – amazing and great Johanna to experience this and how energy [electricity, power] affects and impact every day life, and its quality.
We are so used to this technology being all around us that we get this problem that it takes our attention away from real life and concentrates it on that which is not true living. It is so important to notice this and come to terms with the use of these technologies, and most importantly the why. So we can get back to our true way of living and nurture connections in real life.
‘How much are we really missing out on because of our overuse and excessiveness in technology?’
Such a great question that I have no doubt the answer is so obvious. But I’m realising that I haven’t needed technology to check out and not be with people – even when I am with people! This started young when I felt those around me switch off. So I too got engrossed in my worries and preoccupations, read books all the time.
Technology today fully supports a level of disengagement with each other that is unprecedented but a separateness from one another that I have experienced was always there. Where children were sent out to play until dusk but weren’t engaged with but seen as separate entities.
Writing this I realise how much I wanted to connect but the lines of connection were broken it seemed at the time. It’s great to be honest about this natural impulse to connect and stay connected – even when I am home alone I am connected with others and can choose to be consciously aware of this fact. I have a responsibility to be aware and connected because that was what I missed growing up and which motivated me to go into ways of numbing out what I ultimately knew I was missing: connection with myself, with God, with others.
Do we choose to look at technology as the culprit for our disconnection, or do we choose to look at our own movements that had brought us to the point of choosing technology over connection? Hmmmm, something for many to ponder on.
Great point Kim, it is all in the how we use what and in what state of connection/disconnection we move as to how we use anything, not just technology.
Awesome Johanna. I love the level of appreciation you had in just this single day. Really makes you consider just how much we take for granted in almost every moment.
I’ve always loved getting away from our developed civilisation and going camping in the countryside or at the beach. There has been something so very appealing about leaving behind what living has become. That is until recent years when I have reconnected to my own essence and now any life situation, is about bringing me to it in full.
Where ever there is an excess it is usually from supply and demand. We want distractions from what we are feeling… bam there are multiple gadgets, devices and substances to assist with that. You only need to look at why the latest gadget the ‘fidget spinny’ was created. We all crave connection and if this is what we were asking for then there would be a very different supply.
I notice how many people are constantly being busy with their mobile phones, laptop or tablet. If I speak for myself, very often it is a distraction to ‘offer’ me something so I don’t have to feel. Isn’t that incredible; that we do a lot to not feel, yet we’re missing ourselves deeply when we don’t feel. Because if we numb ourselves in any way, we can’t feel ourselves neither. Quite ironic! We’re deeply loving people that care enormous for each other, yet due to our choices to not feel this, we’re getting lost more and more.
It seems that we are missing out on quite a bit with our over reliance on modern technology and computers. These are no substitute for real connection and quality time spent with others.
This is very true. Today I visited a huge shopping centre and there were virtual reality seats with eye pieces there for people to pay to have a go. When I saw this I thought how could people ever think nature was interesting if they get themselves seeking the stimulation and super defined colours in virtual reality technology.
It is common these days to see couples eating out and not speaking to each other but checking their phones – it is sad to see that things have gone this way, and there seems to be no let up in the disconnection to each other.
When I have my grandchildren there have been moments where they have wanted to have the TV on to watch cartoons and I have said yes but once turned on this did not last very long as what comes at you through these cartoons actually hurts energetically. I now choose to relate with them through sharing, colouring, playdough or playground time. Just yesterday I turned the TV on knowing that it really wasn’t the best choice for my 9yr old grandson and instantly the characters and colours in the animated shows hit full force and so off went the TV instantly. The beauty of this experience was that it allowed me to talk to my grandson about energy and the choice to feel the difference in the shows that he watches and to feel into his body for the most loving response and choice to make at these times. What I came to also realise in this conversation is that the majority of our young ones have never experienced life without distraction or electronic entertainment of some type and that they are being truly robbed of feeling their own glory and stillness. Great article Johanna – thank you.
We are in an age where every-one is on their phones no matter where they are. I was sitting down to dinner recently with a group of people and each person at the table had their phone next to them and would intermittently text some-one through out the dinner. I found that they were distracted as they were having multiple conversations. I was the only one with out a phone. I observe worse in restaurants and dinners where people sitting together eating are often on their phone and no-one connecting with each other.
I agree Mary-Louise. I noticed couples out together when I was out to dinner recently and wondered if we are sometimes using technology as a way to avoid intimacy with each other.
So true. I remember before this technology, it used to be the ‘Sunday Paper’ at the breakfast table that people buried themselves behind…
There are so many things in this world that we more often than not take for granted and electricity is at the top of the list, but it is only when we are without it that we realise how heavy our dependency on it is. We live in the country and are on water tanks so when the power goes out we not only have no power we have no water which includes no flushing toilets so we are always prepared for this eventuality. We have certainly learned to appreciate power and water and also the opportunity that we are offered when we are without to learn to live in another more simple way.
A day without electricity wouldn’t be too bad in our household either. What I have noticed with my children is that watching tv or playing games on an iPad or iPod becomes a habit and once the habit is broken (and I have to say this was much easier than I thought) the tv, iPad or iPod are there but it is not such a big deal to use them. It is observing when and communicating with the kids as to why they feel the need to feel drawn to go back to using technology a second time round… it is a constant learning, the reflection they are offering to me in each and every moment.
I often wonder how people lived without mobile phones, the other day I had a brief moment where I left my phone in the car and I felt lost without it, I am literally never without it. Perhaps I need to try an experiment using my phone less and see if I’m still alive at the end of the day!!
Love that Meg I might try that too but the thought of not having my phone with me is horrifying!!!! I too have it with me24/7.
Love your comment Meg – and yes it may feel really uncomfortable … I am making myself go on my walks without it or in the Gym without having it next to me while exercising, and I have noticed how much more connected I walk or exercise, how much I notice within myself and around me – it makes a huge difference ….
Johanna, thank you for sharing your experience of a day with no electricity. Since reading your article yesterday I went into town and noticed the huge road work project that is taking place in the centre, I have seen this before but today I appreciated the teamwork and care that the men were working with and what amazing organisation and co-ordination it takes and how they are making sure people can pass through as safely and as easily as possible, I felt a deep appreciation and joy watching how we can work together in this way, ‘It really is amazing to see and appreciate the teamwork that takes place on such a vast project’.
Some great points to ponder on Johanna, it is fascinating how much we rely on and take electricity for granted. And because we dont truly appreciate it then mis-use it to check out and distract ourselves. We even walk with our phones in our hands cutting connection to what is going on around us and also altering the quality of our walk. Like with most things it is how and why we use it that is important to take note of.
This is really gorgeous Johanna, that without trying these intimate moments with family members and friends are possible – it’s just for us to look at what’s getting in the way of this being the status quo in every moment, e.g. distractions, tension, putting up guards against one another etc.
Technology has moved on and has become a crutch that has made us forget how to walk! Flint and steel were a significant technological advancement from rubbing two sticks together, but they still produce the same end product. Are we using technology to create things that are not tangible or real things, that for some reason we can not live without?
When I was a young child we had a series of early evening power cuts that went on for weeks during the coal miners dispute. I loved how we had candles lit all over the house and the intimate time we spent chatting as a family without the distraction of the TV. I missed it when the strikes were over.
I was thinking as I read your blog how interesting it would be to have an electricity free day. It’s amazing how much we can miss out on if we use our electrically powered gadgets for distraction, rather than with purpose.
It is actually frightening how much we reply on electricity. A very good exercise to be without it for a day.
I find it really scary these days how much kids are sucked into technology, games and television, even a little bit seems to change them a great deal, so it would be an interesting thing if we were faced with power cuts on a more regular basis to see the effects this would have and see if people would wake up to this ever increasing problem of checked-outness.
Johanna reading your blog I get the feeling that it would be great to explore using technology only for things that have purpose and not relying upon it, a bit like how we can rely and indulge in food or use it to support our bodies. What stands out here is its up to us to determine the quality of relationship with have with everything .
Yes so true – “… it’s up to us to determine the quality of relationship with have with everything.” And there we go back to responsibility as to how we use anything and in that state of being we are when we use anything and anyone that we come into contact with.
It could be said we also take for granted the unlimited supply of unseen energy that surrounds us – Love
That is true – yet are we even remotely connected in a way for us to actually feel that all embodying love that is all around? If we were, then there would be no need to do all the other things we do so as to not feel the love-lessness with which we may be running our lives…
Gorgeous blog, Johanna, sounds like the day without electricity was a real blessing, confirming the loving relationship that you share with yourself and your family and the absolute joy in just being with each other, and for others, it offered a reflection of the emptiness in their lives that they are filling with electronic distractions to avoid feeling the sadness, the hurt felt from missing themselves and the connection to the love that they are.
‘How much are we really missing out on because of our overuse and excessiveness in technology? ‘ – so much that it’s too hard to quantify. We are missing out on something we all crave deeply, connection, which starts with connection to ourselves and we then share the quality of that connection in all our interactions and relationships with everyone else.
I work in a job where encouraging a reduction in screen time for children is a focus, when we think about how things have changed it seems for all the benefits of technology life has actually become less fulfilling for children because of it. And it is justified in its use more and more for educational purposes, not to mention as rewards. Yet where is the reward in giving a child a screen to stare at, it seems like a pacifier, not a true benefit.
“But then, when there is a reliance on something, what happens when it is taken away? We are of course left to feel how much we rely on it” – super line Johanna, and applicable to everything in life, not just here in the electricity example you share. Removing something dependent to feel what’s underneath – is evolving.
I absolutely loved reading about and feeling the love and care you applied in preparing for the electricity cut. The car one did make me smile and be grateful for not having a garage for I would have most definitely found myself trapped. There is no doubt that electricity cuts would leave many feeling anxious or discombobulated without the comfort or support that electricity provides. They are a great exposure of the excessive nature of our need or reliance which ultimately deny us experiencing and appreciating the joy that can come from connection to people rather than technology.
I love an appreciate electricity! I grew up on boats, so for about 24 years I always had to be aware of what lights were on because it was easy to flatten the batteries, and if there was no sun, then there would be no power! When you live life on solar panels with a small battery, you can’t have fridges, tv’s, microwaves, electric kettles and this list goes on and these days I have all the modern comforts but boy oh boy do I appreciate them! I also love being able to put the heating on… I don’t really mind how hot it gets, I don’t need aircon but I do love to be warm in winter!
Surely the first intention of technology was to be able to communicate more promptly and efficiently and yet now it’s abused in so many ways through cyber bullying, relaying untruths, all those games some of which are very detrimental and habitual and of course used as a fill in babysitter. It’s not the amazing technology that is harmful it’s the way we use it, depending on it to fill in the gaps (the emptiness) we feel, it’s like we want to hide our true selves behind a screen and by doing so become very isolated and lost without it. The question we need to be asking is why do we need/choose the many distractions of which technology is just another and even more insidious form. When technology is used with true intention and integrity it’s a marvellous tool that can inform and unite us. I really appreciate all the advantages of electricity, although there is one thing I love when the electricity does go off (for a while) and that’s the silence and no little lights flashing.
I find it fascinating when we have to go without something we take for granted in daily life – like the electricity being cut off, or the water turned off for plumbing, or our car being serviced over 2 days, etc. It very much exposes our lack of appreciation… and brings a new appreciation for what we have and the lives we live.
How lost can we get when for all terms and purposes everything looks like we are succeeding in life, when we are ticking all the boxes of ‘normal’ and when we have finally worked out ways of not feeling the angst and the deep ache of a world contra to everything in our heart. Then anything that calls us out of this cozy state of distraction and numbness feels like a rude awakening to be avoided at all costs.
Yet this rude awakening, be it a power cut, a blog such as this or another who clearly and openly does not play the same game, is the greatest gift we can have. For if we never wake up from outer stupor, we will keep digging ourselves further and further into an abyss of our own making until we are finally stopped by a major calamity as humanity has faced time and again throughout history.
Technology can be used wisely, for true purpose… but this is not something that is ever offered or promoted. We can hold a connection within ourselves as we use it… we don’t have to check out or use it to numb ourselves.
Reading this I can feel something in me which almost longs for a return to the days of less technology and dependence on electricity for it. I feel this is in fact an avoidance of responsibility as without it we would not have to make the choices of how to use it and take responsibility for this.
Switching off the phone, computer and electricity for the day would give so much space to other projects, it feels like a lovely exercise to do.
Thank you for the sharing, Johanna as I too have found power cuts to be initially challenging but then as I have let go and accepted the situation there is space to reconnect to another way. I often find these moments that happen in life when changes have to be made to our usual routines and activities we are offered a learning and time to reflect and appreciate.
How we run ourselves and our lives is more what we need to look at- its like our nervous systems are in over-drive and we don’t know how to stop so technology becomes an ‘aide’ to keep that going. It is not the technology that is the issue it is our need for it that pushes it to the extremes of what we have today, where some people want to escape life so much that they live largely in a virtual world.
If it isn’t technology that is being used to distract, check out and avoid ourselves with, we have many other options available. All of which are on standby, 24/7 should we want to use them. We make the choice, then everything is supplied.
And we know exactly what to go to to not feel what is going on for us. We literally have everything available to us whether this be the ‘bad’ things the seemingly ‘good’ things or the actual true things. We just have to decide what it really is that we want – then it will be provided.
Back to choice – so true – every moment we choose what we will align too and then we are given what fits that alignment – and with that knowing we can start to make choices that will support us and connect us with ourselves and others, also every moment of the day…
Quiet crazy to think about the extent to which we are reliant on technology. It sort of shows up where we are in the world and how we want everything now. An electricity cut seems like the perfect opportunity to bring to our attention just how huge electricity is.
I used to waste loads of electricity by leaving just about every light on in the house and heaters. For me it was 2 things: lack of presence and lack of care. I now turn off lights after I leave the room as well as heaters and this feels so much better, feels respectful of the space, myself and every-one I live with and saves a lot of money on our electricity bills.
‘what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?’ – A profound question Johanna and something for all of us to truly ponder.
There is indeed much to be gained from simplicity and connection, irrespective of the activity at hand.
Yes as it is never the activity really that determines where we are but our connectedness to ourselves and others or our disconnectedness which then will be fed by that which thrives on keeping us away from simple and loving choices.
“Everything is energy and everything is because of energy”≈Serge Benhayon. How we use energy becomes important, as is the energy we connect to. Electrical energy can be a powerful tool when used in a way to support us to stay connected to our divinity. Imagine if electricity providers became all about people and not profits, what would that electricity bring to humanity? Would it still be the same energy or would it support us in our evolution? I love the days where there is no electrical energy available as I can snuggle up with a purple book and read.
Yes you are so right Johanna, we do not appreciate the power that runs so many things in our lives and really just take it for granted. I loved the feel of your super awesome preparations beforehand which simply supported you through the power break with ease.
This blog reminds me of being flooded in with no power for a couple of days with friends and how our time became about connecting with each others in simple ways. It really was no so bad when the phone batteries went dead and we relied on community and our own connection with nature.
This is a great example how, when something (suddenly) is not there in our life anymore, we get to realise how much we actually have but do not use it in its full potential nor appreciate it for what it brings. We live with a constant focus on the next and the more instead of drawing from all that is there already, as you describe here so beautifully Johanna.
So true, we need this constant stimulation and excitement of more, different, new without realizing that this will never satisfy or fulfil us.
We are so reliant on our computers and electronic gadgets it seems that when they fail in a big arena for whatever reason (as in the case of the recent British Airways problem at Heathrow) chaos can ensue. It seems we have forgotten the true art of communication and when technical problems occur this is very much highlighted.
So true Rachel, true expression and communication is always going to be important. When we all learn how to express in a way that truly communicates with an openness and without hidden agendas, we all benefit.
We take electricity for granted and don’t appreciate its immediacy. This week we had a water leak in our village – supplied by a spring. I was warned, so able to fill pans and bottles so that I had drinking and cooking water. But I realised how much I take for granted its availability on tap – literally. Huge appreciation for the people who keep us going with these utilities, when years ago in the UK we had to walk to a well or river for water and use candles for light on dark evenings. In some countries this is still the case.
It is true we are so reliant on electricity nearly all material things in life rely on it, and we become very lost when we don’t have our support mechanisms in place to help us get through the day. The problem is we seek comfort and moments to check out in life and electricity has given us this opportunity, by all the various technological gadgets that keep us entertained and away from being in true connection with everyone. It s not that we should discard all these gadgets but that we don’t let them take over and rule our lives, because like you have shown Johanna there is so much more to life when we open our eyes and look around us.
A very important question: “what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?”.
Do we provide a loving environment for our kids, providing a supportive space in which the learn to forever grow and develop in their love of themselves and others. I am very touched by this blog as to me it reveals that we’ve lost touch with life, that we – in general – don’t know how to relate with each other. So children are reflected by their parents and others people that life is about checking out, rather than being open, caring and loving – which children naturally are. I can feel the ignorance in society and my own giving-up-ness how to be with this. Also realising that I am not to change anything or anybody, but am responsible for simply living in a way that is reflecting a life that is based on togetherness and forever evolving. We can’t change anyone, we are to only provide space and hold others as an offering to also choose love over dullness and ignorance.
Thank you Johanna, you have made some great points about how we choose to use electricity and technology, as a caring support for our lives or as a way to check out from how uncomfortable life can feel and not challenge ourselves to work through things to grow and evolve.
This blog reminded me that just like electricity in our daily lives, we have energy running through our bodies all the time and we can ‘use or abuse’ this energy in the same way.
So true Johanna, a day without electricity certainly brings up our huge reliance on this amazing technology and exposes the gaps in our ability to simply live and relate to one another. It is very sad to hear how bereft a teenager feels when not able to escape into their virtual world and are left feeling isolated and alone, even though they are surrounded by people they could be connecting to. Choosing to kill off these distractions has been an enormous benefit in my life, as I have learnt to build proper relationships with those close to me that have gently unfolded to all I meet. Valuing the true benefit of electricity enriches our lives, using it to distract ourselves away from normal life is creating an array of social problems that we have yet to fully realise.
Last week I didn’t have access to my phone as it froze for a day. I could feel that when I made it about the phone my anxiety levels rose. After about 30 minutes I gave up the anxiety and was curious as to what I could learn about life without my phone. As a humanity we are very cut off and closed down from each other when there is a screen between us. Should we look up and into the eyes of another, that’s where the magic can be seen and felt. From experience, eye contact and connection is not the majority as I commute to work but those moments where we do are worth remaining open for.
Johanna a stunning article that we should all carefully reflect on, it raises many questions for us in terms of what we value in our life and what is important to us. I love what you share here and in how much are we irresponsible with technology and therefore what do we miss out on in life for ourselves and others.
Electricity is a fantastic resource to enhance our physical lives. However, its use as a provider of comfort and a means by which we distract ourselves from dealing with what is truly happening in life is an abuse of it and by doing so abusive to ourselves and others.
As we could say this with anything – eg food is a fantastic way to nourish our bodies but when we use it to indulge, escape, dull etc ourselves then we end up with the health issues today that we have related to food intake and the types of foods we eat.
Electricity and technology is definitely something we take for granted, I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere without my phone… you just don’t do it. Do I overuse technology? Very possibly. I know there are definitely moments spent surfing the net or checking out Facebook that could be used for something way healthier.
Johanna, this is a great article, I have heard and observed how much we rely on technology and how common it is for children, even 3 and 4 years olds to be reliant on T.V and vide games, I have heard about and observed parents placing their children in front of i-pads to make them eat; i-pads being in hairdressers so the children sit still while they are having their hair cut and commonly i-pads used on car journeys so the children do not get bored, computers seem to be used a lot to distract kids, to make them sit still and so its interesting to see what happens when there are no i-pads and computer games to play with, I wonder if this is stopping children from learning how to be patient and how to be still without relying on technology.
I feel it is definitely having an affect on how children are able to be and be settled or not. As a teacher in schools I find children are wanting to be entertained more and are not just ok to be in the class learning or listening and respectfully contributing. Something else I am noticing is an increase in fiddle toys, mouth pacifiers and fidget toys to keep kids from acting unsettled. This also is a type of bandaid without addressing the problem. Another blog!
And I am seeing the number of kids using these increasing by the term – which is a concern.
Your ability to keep to a 15 minute game limit for your daughter is amazing!
She often doesn’t even go on it these days too much now but when she does the limit is still 15. And by chance if she goes over it and has not been responsible to stop and I’ve been busy to notice, then that uses up her following days allowance. And this also teaches a responsibility which is great.
Great call to question our use of technology – are we using it for purpose and to serve something greater than ourselves, or for distraction, or to check out from the state of the world and where we find ourselves in it? It works both ways, as a tool of awareness and connection, or checking out and distraction, and how we use it depends on our intention.
Great questions Bryony , and ones we can use for any situation in our lives. When we use something as a tool of awareness and connection we are reconfirming our commitment to a return of a true way of being.
Very true. I do know that I never use to want to be part of Facebook for example because of the mere stupidity that is in it or it’s used for- but now that I know it can be used to share truth and purposeful articles and true ways of being in life I am part of it.
Just been experimenting with cutting TV out of my life to find that, when I did, space and stillness opened up. It also exposed what was really going on, how I was living, my relationship with myself and another and the discomfort caused by living in a still quiet space. Without background noise and focus on on-screen activity and dramas, all was there to feel: TV and technology used to fill a gap, an emptiness. I discovered how much more space was available to me than I had been aware of. Families hide behind technology, but it can also be any activity, knitting or reading. We are here to deepen our connection with ourselves and each other. We could all have playful electricity free days to see how it feels and take it further and limit our dependency on technology to purposeful activity.
It does bring up so much. We found this too when we let it gradually go. Now we watch very little and we always check in to why before we do so or sometimes we end up nominating later why or how it felt.
I realised with all I felt as we starting cutting tv out that it was a bit like a drug. Sometimes that, as you say is used to fill the gaps but also something that can pull you back to it.
Thank you Johanna, what an amazing day. What stands out to me is the way that you and your family had already been living which meant that this day was something to be explored and was not a restriction or an imposition on your life, it was simply another day to learn which is very beautiful.
Yes very true Shami. Thank you.
We have even given our new appendage a name ‘nomophobia’ and covers loss of; phone, reception and a dead battery. I know a lot of people that when I ask them to give me their phone for just an hour, its like asking them to loose a limb! On the rare occasion when I forget my phone at home when I go to work it is a bit annoying, my Oyster card for the train is in the cover and it is my watch. Weekends, I need to use my wife’s phone, to call mine so I can find it. For years I only had a cheap pay as you go car phone that lived in the glove box that every few months I would recharge. It is no longer science fiction that we soon could have implanted phones. There was a time when a family would sit around a table and talk over dinner now you only need to go to a restaurant to enjoy the silence as most sit quietly with heads bowed, with their electronic bible in their hands! Is, face to face expression becoming a dying art?
I love your day ‘off the grid’ and the simplicity and ease with which it unfolded (and a big thumbs up to your divine organisation!). So if that’s how we can live unplugged, imagine the beautiful energy we can feed back into the grid when it’s live and we’re connected!⚡️????✨????
Awesome perspective and angle to bring. Thank you Victoria.
I love that you love cranes and big building equipment, and I love your appreciation of something that most of us just take for granted. I remember as a kid having power cuts in the winter and I always found it really exciting getting out the candles and all sitting round the open fire and I lived on a boat for seven years so you couldn’t just take it for granted then except a lot of the time we would be plugged in to the mooring so you would get a bit laxed.
Electricity is something we take for granted, most of us don’t fully understand how it works, we can’t see it, touch it, or smell it but we know it is there whenever we want it (most of the time). The love of God is all around us all the time and we can’t see it, touch it, or smell it but we know it is always there. Do we take the love of God for granted?
Technology can be a huge distraction if that is what we use it for and it can be very addictive. Technology also is something very useful in our lives. Without it I would mostly like not be able to work from home, it has certainly made our life much, much easier in many ways.
It is so normal to have technology available to us 24/7 and which in itself is not a bad thing. to me it actually is a blessing to mankind as the support it is providing us. The main thing though is how we use and appreciate it for what it brings, are we using it wisely or not, are we using it to connect with people, in doing our projects, keeping and preparing nourishing foods etc. or have we become completely dependent on it for filling our days, and that for even a moment without we would feel devastated and lost? These are the questions to ponder on for me after reading this beautiful and inspiring blog.
I also hugely appreciate the wonderful group work I have seen time and time again between builders and contractors and I too enjoy seeing big cranes and equipment as you describe. I even remember as a child naming a particularly big crane Mr Jones.
Great blog Johanna. I love the way you remind us all of the responsibility we have to use our resources wisely. Electricity, food, sleep, medication and money can all be used in a way that supports us or in a way that causes disharmony. The consequences of our choices need to be felt and understood.
And the fact is that if we choose to not feel or act on this responsibility then our bodies and lives will simply show this too us – yet in a way that doesn’t feel as pleasant.
Very much appreciated reflection of the use of technology Joanne, and I definitely overuse it. Yet when I do switch of the machines it does feel so good, so definitely one to do more of. less technology allows for more genuine fun.
Ah Johanna I can absolutely relate to this feeling of so many things being ‘on tap’ and just living day to day as if this is always the way it should be. Why does it have to be that we need it to be taken away to realise how supported we are? Sometimes I think I will reach a certain level when I will decide ‘ah yes this is enough – I can now appreciate this’ but actually I can see it doesn’t work this way. Life is right there ready and waiting to be appreciated now – with all of me. There is no ‘better time’ to enjoy being alive.
Enjoying life fully makes technology feel like a 2D experience. Technology, when used incorrectly to fill the emptiness of a lack of connection is a very poor second to the connection that is natural for us and we are able to have.
What a lovely day and reflection Johanna. I have had a few such warnings about electricity being off for a day and also prepared well. This was especially important when we lived in the country and needed electricity to run our water pump. Remembering to take the car out is a great one and you can often observe a whole street of people trying to figure out how to open their garage doors.
I have been caught out with the car inside the garage the first time the electricity went off, as always before I had manual garages. Love modern technology but times like these you realise how dependant you are on it unless you are organised and think of all these things before hand.
I’m picturing unprepared people standing in front of their homes confused – funny
Distraction comes in many forms and it’s amazing when we realise how much we seek to be entertained and stimulated constantly, as if we can’t stand just being, feeling ourselves.
We as a society have basically become addicted to distraction, with a lot of our technology geared to divert us away from feeling the lack of connection we experience in our lives. We seek to escape the tension that follows from our lack of connection, and through technology we have created the illusion that we are connecting when our minds are engaged in our screens. Yet it is only our minds that are engaged but our hearts and bodies are not, completely left out of the picture. What you have shared here Johanna is a very important message, as it highlights just how much we have given our power away to being distracted through technology, when the fact remains that without connection we are never truly free from the need and drive of distraction. As through our connection to ourselves first we are open to explore a far richer and more real world of connection with others, and this is where we begin to experience the magic of what living is about.
Great point Carola. We can either choose to be in the Dakar connection of minds connecting or to truly be with ourselves and people from a heart and body connection. There is absolutely a great magic to be lived when we make life about people and connecting with others from the heart.
The same team must have been working on our street as well… It’s so lovely and quiet when the electricity goes off isn’t it… Extremely enjoyable.
I agree Chris, a few months ago we had a thunder storm and the power went out. There were many who were very upset with it all but I thought it was great. We lit candles, talked more and hung out together as a family and then simply went to bed.
Lol Chris 🙂 some team.
We live in a world of images and our children are being raised by screens; be they TV, iPad, iPhone, computer, tablet and the like. What this means for us as a society is that rather than learning how to deeply connect with each other through good ‘old fashioned’ heart-to-heart contact, we are now slowly withdrawing even more from the world, each others and ourselves by allowing ourselves to become even more seduced by the images on offer that are meticulously designed to keep from accessing the image-free world of our inner-heart, the place where our true self resides. What I love about your sharing Johanna, is that it shows us it is very simple to arrest this situation simply by taking the time to be with each other and ourselves, fully present, in each small movement of the day and that it is this warmth of connection that disbands the hold such images have had over us all.
For our generations today who do not know life without technology it is a real true support for them to feel the depth of connection possible as they grow up – otherwise they are only left with the distraction of what technology can bring. This I feel is part of our responsibility as adults – to have a connection with ourselves and with the children in our lives whether we are their birth parents or not. This connection as you share Luanne is so powerful that it disbands the hold of such images. Beautifully shared. Thank you.
Our levels of disconnection are so great that we feel we need to connect if only in an electrical kind of way and if that is taken away we have lost our best friend and go into an anxiousness . . . so without this distraction from our lack of connection we have an opportunity to feel in full the anxiousness and the emptiness of a life reliant on a fix.
Too true and a blessing in itself Kathleen. As always – anytime we are left to feel the truth of a situation,it becomes part of our conscious awareness and we are able to be honest with it which can then bring us to make supportive changes.
Electricity is such an amazing ‘invention’ for our use. And to be sure we all misuse or have misused it at some time or another – even if we aren’t hugely addicted’ to having it there as comforter and distractor. I agree with all the observations you have made Johanna about the way we can be anxious without it!
I have come to realise how great it is to be connected to it, for the practicalities of the way life is run now. In our area recently there was major flooding and my power was off for 4 days – I was told by the Energy company that my power was actually on the whole time but had to be switched off so as not to electrocute people down the road whose lines and connection were under water. Not being able to leave the house for 2 days because the creek was up further down the road, was quite testing. No electricity means no water at my place as there is a pump for the tank – but wow, I had plenty of creek water, just not a lot of muscle to cart buckets up hill to the house. I have a hurricane lamp and little gas portable stove for such occasions and had some very inventive stove-top meals. I thought of cleaning the house, but of course no electricity for water or vacuum cleaner though sweeping was a smallish option. On the first day I had the amazing luxury of being able to sit down and write an article as I still had charge on the computer but of course no Internet. So I had incredible fun writing an article on one of Shakespeare’s plays. It was quite funny having so much to write and watching the charge on the computer go down down down. I think I finished the article that afternoon at 4pm when the computer was at about 4%! The other thing was that it was freezing cold with no heating. But I had my log fire to keep me warm at night. I was glad to get out on the third day and do some road repairs and shopping. I went to the library to gain access to Internet but it had closed due to the floods, and went to find a friend but she had forgotten her wi-fi password so that was that.
I have to say that if everything were set up so that we did not use electricity that would be fine, but now we live in a world that electricity is the ‘practical’ backbone of – 4 days of emails and Internet work was monumental to catch up on. I simply surrendered and I did what I could, though felt an initial ‘Oh No!’ how am I going to cope with this. All in all I am very appreciative of this utility and am full of admiration for the men who go out in all kinds of weather and climb up ladders with all their expertise to fix the wires. These guys are unsung heroes!
What an awesome sharing Lyndy. Thank you. I smiled the whole time I read what you wrote because the detail helped me picture your experience.
I find it amazing to attend a meal when all the guests are on their mobile phones. We do tend to shut down from the people we are with and retreat to the ‘safety’ of online communication.
Or do we retreat from connecting because we are already shutdown and then technology becomes an easy filler to keep people away from exposing the uncomfortableness that connection can bring us when we are used to not connecting.? Chicken and the egg or does it all start with the quality of our connection with ourselves and the responsibility we take for granted – that then determines how open we are with others. But also what chance do the young have when we place an iPhone in their hands at 2 ? So much around this topic.
I agree Carmel. This is such a common sight now. Walking past Cafe’s and Restaurants, there are more people on screens than connecting with those they are with. It makes me wonder how many hours a day people are actually using screens as a form of distraction.
So true Johanna. The reliance on technology is a major problem for a great many young people. It has been used as a pacifyier for such a long time that now there is a reliance on it for calming down or for dealing with hurt and upset. The danger of that comes when it is easier to be in the online world where you are, supposedly, more in control than in the real world. The lines are very blurred.
Yes, when I was young it required a level of determination and persistence to check out thoroughly via reading books – I managed but it was an effort. Today’s immersive environments make it very easy to check out. That doesn’t feel like progress, like easy availability of harmful drugs would probably also not qualify as progress.
And what are the generations ahead who will be raised by those today in the technology era be like – I can see a greater level of disconnection and disfunction in society coming. This is why us as adults taking responsibility of the way and the how and the purpose of technology is such an important reflection for our young today. For they will be the adults soon raising the young.
This was a beautiful blog to read Johanna in terms of feeling the connection between you and your daughter and the simplicity of your day without electricity. In regards to electricity you have made me stop to consider how much I take it for granted… to imagine life without a mobile or a lap top is tricky, although of course I grew up without them, so for a generation who knows no life at all without these mod cons it would be harder still.
A great conversation. There are many great things about technology, but like everything it’s not the be all and end all and it must come back to how we use the technology that we have been given. When we have such a need attached to it and can’t go a day without it then we need to stop and ask what is going on that I need such distraction?
Very good question and one that should be out on billboards instead of advertising.
We might not enjoy it, but it is wonderful when we have such situations like power cuts, incidents and other such situations in life that prompt us to feel the foundations upon which we are living life. We don’t stop and assess our life nearly enough.
But life does make us assess it eventually as does our bodies. Something to appreciate as we are never left to stray endlessly without being accountable.
Your last question Johanna offers us much…I often ponder on what the future will be with such a reliance on technology and one that can provoke such anxiety when not connected to it. I think we are heading for a ‘connection breakdown’ as we connect more and more to machines, and less and less to each, and it will have disastrous effects, it feels like a slow train wreck waiting to happen.
I would agree and have had similar concerns about the future. But as Johanna has shared there is a way of turning it all around with the very thing that technology seeks to avoid – human connection.
How powerful us our human connection if we have to bring in such intense distractions to avoid being with it? This is something to ponder on.
It’s a great point not Sarah, we are turning more and more to screens and tech instead of exploring the richness of relationships with both ourselves and each other.
Melinda that is so true, I do it all the time and whilst I am far more appreciating relationships I can still dismiss the amazing connections in favour of the screen. That said the change I’ve felt from letting go of screens for “entertainment” has been incredible.
And one that will be massive when it does Sarah. But sometimes in life when we stray so far from our divine connection and live in a way that completely opposes the communication and connection we receive from our essence – then a big wake up call is needed and at times the only thing to make us stop and reflect on our choices. A blessing in disguise but one that can be avoided if we choose.
On the topic of energy supply, what I wonder is how much negative energy thought is sent towards the workers ‘simply doing their job’, supplying the essential power that is so easily taken for granted? Your presence of appreciation and wonder for the works being done must have been a wonderful support to the project, something that energetically might not be offered very often.
A beautiful point Sandra. Thank you!
Recently I moved and have had different people come through for various reasons. What has been interesting is the comments that I don’t have a TV. (All but one isn’t coming with any reason to even think about a TV).
Absolutely gorgeous to read Johanna. I sometimes notice when I am busy and looking for distractions with food, Facebook, pressuring myself etc. that when I stop actually there is this absolute stillness that is gorgeous to feel. We think when we are in the momentum of doing and keeping ourselves busy that it will hurt to stop and maybe there are some things to feel but it never is long and what is there too is a beautiful stillness that is very nurturing to feel and cherish.
So very true Lieke. We are very blessed that that stillness is there for when we choose to stop and come back to it.
Electronic devices are becoming the new pacifier for many children, didn’t they used to be called dummies… the things they sucked on, not the children. So, who is, the dummy today?
I love the way you have shared about the connection with your daughter. How often do I take the time to simply be with my son or others for no reason other than to be and because I enjoy their company? I’m quite good at purposeful work, but purposeful hanging out and connection have taken second place.
This is something that I try to remind myself of a lot especially when I work as a teacher with many kids. It can be so easy to get lost in the doing or outcomes or chores and go on but what I find is that when I bring intention to just connecting, to looking kids in the eye and having a chat then all the rest simply gets done in a Beautiful holding and togetherness way. I’m constantly working on this and feel that I always will be as I’m sure the deeper I experience connection to be with myself then I will want to bring that when I’m with others.
I too have noticed that people go into a panic when there is going to be a power cut. For some it is like the world is coming to an end. If we are not able to simply be with ourselves for an extended period of time without the distraction of technology then our bodies are telling us that we are in dis-ease. One of the greatest gifts we can bring to our children is the ability to simply be with themselves, to feel enough as they are. We do this through reflection by knowing that we are enough as we are.
Stopping and feeling at ease with being is an amazing gift to let our children feel. And sometimes that may come with a bit of resistance but it is a responsibility a parent hold – as a child who is allowed to grow up with constantly needing to be on the go or in distraction will suffer the tension or anxiety or the like at much greater levels when they grow up. And therefore will be bringing less of who they are to society as a whole. A child who is at ease with themselves and being will then be able to bring their fullness to all areas in life.
The fact that reading this I was wishing that I could have a day of ‘enforced’ technology absence speaks volumes to me. I can feel my reliance on it to fill me up or distract me from the discomfort I feel when I am completely alone with myself.
Absolutely brilliant sharing and observations. Yes indeed what are we as a society and parents doing in relationship to raising our young, how distracted and unavailable are we? Technology is here and it is no doubt here to stay but rather than swallowing it whole as if we have to consume it in every way we can make choices, loving choices of how we are and how we interact with it and each other.
Spot on Vanessa. Even with all this distraction around we still have a choice. Do we put people, connection and relationships first and use technology to support a depth in those relationships or do we put technology first and just hang around people in a functioning or existing way?
An exposing blog Johanna – even visiting the computer shop recently, there were young children gravitating to play with the iPads (and very clearly well used to them) stationed there for them, whilst parents shopped for other equipment or were speaking on their phones to others. The children were so engrossed, there were tantrums acting out when being asked to leave with their parents..
“How many moments with our children do we let slip through our fingertips and most importantly, what kind of future adults are we creating when some kids can already say they feel anxious without their phone or don’t know what to do if they can’t access their games?”
I agree Stephanie – and I recently saw the most hypocritical ad – basically centred on a dad watching tv or on his computer, being distracted and unengaged with his two daughter who were playing. What the advert was for was another piece of technology, pitching it at somehow making you more involved and present in life? The irony of the advert was not lost on me – if we can see technology is what is disconnecting us, how will adding more technology support that issue?
When our electricity was out for a couple of hours after a storm, I observed how automatically and without any awareness I turn the light switches on in our house – I had clocked that nothing much was working, the fridge wasn’t purring and the clocks had gone blank, but the switches got me quite a few times.
Gabrielle thats amazing to observe and see how conditioned we are to expect electricity and technology to be there for us. I remember what fun it was as a kid with no electricity and candles instead, now i panic I will get behind on things.
It is true, we do miss out on many magical moments with our children, friends, relatives and every one else for that matter when we are too involved with our technology – it’s as though the relationship with the technology in our lives gets given a higher priority than family and friends.
I get this image Julie of people everywhere looking down at their screens and not even noticing the people around them. I see this everywhere and can’t help but feel how everyone is becoming more and more disengaged under the illusion that they are more connected than ever.
Connection today seems to be gauged by the number of ‘likes’ or ‘friends’ someone has but none of it is about depth or quality. A big illusion which is exposed when people seem to be comfortable on phones etc but put them next to a person and the uncomfortableness when relating is obvious.
A great sharing here. When you first wrote about no electricity – I thought wow that must be tough – but what I love is that you prepared for it (the necessities like showering and food) and the rest of the day was all about connection. There is actually a lot we can do without electricity but because it is in our faces all the time we might not consider it.
I often see people and their reliance on technology wonder how they would cope without it. I see that without it people would be faced with where their relationships are at. They would have to feel this and talk with each other, connect with people more local than online. Though technology is great for keeping in touch with friends further afield I see it corrode relationships with people on our door step or those in our house to the point of ridiculousness at times.
How amazing is it for people who work away or who have relatives all over the world that we today can keep in touch over FaceTime, Skype, fuze, emails and so on. This is wonderful as today we get to see people while talking to them and not have to wait months for a letter to be delivered on a donkey. Yet saying this – back then life had a beautiful simplicity about it which I feel is deeply missing from today’s society.
Amazing blog Johanna, the wonders of the universe are found within. I also love how you shared about the way construction workers have great teamwork I have observed this as well and think it is amazing! I also just love the big trucks and cranes, diggers and hard hats etc.
I also see this amazing teamwork in firms and women who need to work together in serious situations.
It is somewhat sad that we are this reliant on technology that we cannot even do a day without it in our lives. It does bring many many great things and supports us in many ways but it feels that without it there and hence it no longer being a distraction we have to come back to basics and reconnect with ourselves. There seems to be greater opportunity to do this as there is now so many things that used to be there to take us away from this connection no longer available.
I agree Joshua it definitely shows where we are at, in that, we are are at a complete loss if we cannot connect with social media or play games etc.
With the amount and regularity that people use technology it is like people see it as part of themselves and hence feel so lost without it. This is really apparent to me when going out to places to eat etc and whole families are on their phones. I see many teenagers not engaging or being engaged with because the phone is their friend.
I love this appreciation for electricity .. or just the appreciation generally highlighting what (and how much) we take for granted. It made me stop and appreciate how electricity helps me in my life and how much I rely on it. Out of your whole blog what I really loved was ‘and my daughter has a 15 minute iPad limit for games each day.’ This felt incredibly healthy and I feel far far more of us should put these boundaries in place with our younger generation …. for their true health and well-being.
Hi Vicky, for me too, by reading this blog I have also come to feel how blessed we actually are to have electricity in our homes and in our societies as how this is in support of our daily lives. To me it is important to always be appreciative for all that is available to us in serving our lives. Besides electricity I can name fresh drinking water, roads, public transport, our houses, cars, supermarkets, dikes to protect us against flooding and so on. Our lives are tremendously supported by technology and it is time to appreciate for that what it is bringing to us.
Yes Nico there is so much to appreciate with all the things that really bring such an ease to our lives.
This is true Nico – there is much to appreciate about technology in many forms and much to be aware of to not sink into comfort and numbness.
Beautifull Nico and with you expanding on this it made me once again stop and feel how important it is to stop and appreciate all we have around us. I have realised I hardly ever do this in my life!
I agree Vicky. Putting a limit on how much technology we let our children interact with is so important for their development and in their later lives. And it brings opportunities that may not otherwise be there for them. There is a whole world waiting for them to shine in, but by sitting in front of a computer screen day after day, that light will soon dim and nobody gets to see it. Then the whole world misses out.
I like the analogy Sandra, the light inside a human being dimmed by an overuse of technology. Electricity can be crucial in keeping us warm, food etc, but then we always have these other uses that can tend to be unnecessary. And as a child to only play on electric items seems rather sad and like they are missing out on childhood, That’s how I feel anyway.
And the funny thing is the iPad now rarely gets used that the novelty has worn off a bit. Time on the trampoline with neighbourhood kids is far more interesting.
Very true Vicky, we seem only to fully appreciate what we have when we don’t have it. Establishing a balance of interaction with our techy games and gadgets is extremely healthy, it supports us to appreciate the natural world of human relationships and nature, our essential foundations in life.
We can blame technology for many things – including the disfunction in our relationships and the state of society due to it’s overuse and/or misuse. However, we really need to look at why we seek to misuse it in the first place.
Very true Kylie. This is a simple case of supply and demand – if we didn’t demand avenues through which to check out via the need to numb ourselves to the pain and misery we are in and seemingly escape the life we have chosen to live, then there would not be such a vast array of devices carrying the allure of ‘escape’ in such enormous supply in our world.
Very simply if we made the effort and time to connect with ourselves and those we love then the seeking of devices for connection would not be there.
Great point Liane. If there is no market for the product then the product has no line of distribution. The difference between needing and wanting.
Very true Kylie. Definitely.
I agree Kylie and by blaming it on technology we can make ourselves believe that we have no choice but to go along with it.
So true Kylie. Not so long ago, I only had a moblie phone so that my children could get hold of me if they needed to – I didnt want or have a need for one in any other way and all I required was to be able to make calls and send messages. But I got taken in along with millions of others and now have a phone that can do way more than I even know what to do with, but I have come to rely on it as a way of communicating in various ways and accessing information at the click of a button. So even in this fairly basic way I am adding to the supply and demand culture of the latest technology. But nothing can replace the true value of a hand written letter or a face to face conversation as opposed to an email or a brief and unconsidered text message.
I agree – our relationship with technology is simply an intensified version or outlet for how we live our lives, therefor the issue is not getting rid of technology or forcing ourselves to fast from it, but in dealing with the issues and behaviours and lacks in our lives that drive us to this intense and addicted use of it.
Indeed Kylie, it is very easy to blame technology but we are the ones who are choosing to misuse it which is supporting it’s enormous growth so isn’t it time we took responsibility and looked at why we are using it? .. why we are needing it?.. why is it so important in our lives?
A craving no doubt for connection but being misled by the electronic kind.
Thanks for sharing on a topic that lays hidden behind the roofs of many homes as the go to ‘babysitter’ the ‘downtime’ gadget and what is now known as the “digital dementia dial’ of our young. It makes me often reflect on the olden days when there was no TV or radio and families worked together till late, shared a meal and sat and connected before bed time. A sign of the past but could this possibly be the way of the future?
Yes like in the old films where we see people just sitting in a living room chatting, knitting, reading, sitting by the fire, drinking tea and just being together. This is such a far image of what families are like today – how they interact. Today it’s rare for families to even sit together at the dinner table. Some are too busy doing their own thing and others sit in their own rooms or sit in lounge with tv on. Very little space to connect and find out about each other.
I love that image, I was reflecting on it the other day Johanna, even 20 years ago how life was not moulded around technology, and that attention spans were greater and if we wanted to speak to a friend we would pick up the phone and speak to communicate, none of the I can’t be bothered talking. I can’t help but feel that we have headed down a damaging route in our reliance on technology and one that will eventually reach a tipping point.
I was remembering my childhood where TV was a fraction of your time and most children would have rather played outside for hours and explored all levels of creativity.
It is interesting to now observe the impact of the lifestyles of our young and old living and the “digital dosages’ that continue to increase in order to keep up with the social media barrage.
I agree – just the other day I was getting on a bus and at the stop, there was a mother with her crying baby in a pushchair – there was a rain cover on the pushchair and it wasn’t until we got on the bus and she removed the cover that I realised that the baby – no more than a year old, was clutching a phone to keep them entertained. Now I completely understand the stress and hassle of taking care of a child and the tempting ease of just handing over some convenient technology to sooth, distract and occupy – and what harm is done? Well the ripple effects won’t full take force for a few years but we are already getting a taste of them in young people and adults, so imagine what it will be like when our babies and toddlers grow up disconnected from the world through technology from such a young age.
One of my daughters when she was under a year old, in a time where pagers where the tech of the day, she loved to be in her bouncy chair and watch the washing machine. It is still better than most things on TV today.
Haha! I would agree with you there Steve. When we get hooked by ‘smart phone’ technology, we can miss so much of the world and the fascinating things that are going on around us all of the time. But a good question to ask is ‘why’ are we allowing ourselves and our kids to get hooked in the first place?