I spent the last week running a leadership camp in the Midwest for junior high girls. It's a great program, one I look forward to every single year; but the hardest part is leaving civilization for 7 solid days.
The camp grounds sit in the middle of a cell phone dead zone, which means absolutely no ability to use my blackberry to check voicemails, respond to e-mails, or even tweet. Computer internet access? Don't even think about it!
No lie. I needed to push through the first couple days and pretend it didn't bother me that my cell phone claimed to have service but I never saw an e-mail come in. By the middle of the week I craved any kind of news from the outside world. And at the end of the week I rejoiced at the sight of my computer and 4 bars of service. (Good grief something as huge as Michael Jackson's death could have happened last week and I would have totally missed it.)
Now back on the rebound (trying to catch up on sleep and sort through hundreds of e-mails) I find I didn't feel the need to spend as much time on the computer as I did before leaving for camp. Of course I still got my work done. Sure I still spent too much time on facebook and twitter, but I also went out, left my computer behind and didn't frantically check my phone.
Maybe we all need a little respite from technology from time to time. Maybe severing all ties and living 'old school' for a few days can help us become more effective and creative writers. It was difficult, but oh so worth it.
Anybody else leave it all behind for awhile? Did you find any positive outcomes?
No comments:
Post a Comment