Less Screen Time

One of the changes I have been wanting to make, and failing miserable at, is to spend less time in front of a screen. I feel in this day and age of smart phones and social media that a large part of how we connect to each other is done through the use of technology.

It's not always a bad thing. Social media let's me see photos of my niece on an almost daily basis when I only get to see her in person every few months or less. I am able to chat with my son, who is 6 hours away at college, at 4 am when I am getting up and he is on his way to bed. It lets my daughter send me urgent messages from her class at school when she feels like she's had an allergic reaction, without having to wait for permission to leave the room or having gone through the channels of the school nurse and all her processes when critical time is being wasted.

Then there is the wasted time. The time when I could be doing other things, but sit down "just to check email" or "just for 5 minutes" and it turns into an hour before I look up from the screen. There are the days when I am too tired to do anything else, and instead of reading a book, or spending time knitting on projects I need to get finished, I curl up in my favorite chair under a blanket with my iPad and spend that last hour before bed browsing Pinterest.

I do believe there is a time and a place for all of it, and we each need to find our own balance. I am working on finding mine, and some days are better than others. I am also looking into going back to school...online. The irony of it it all isn't lost on me, and finding that balance is going to become even more critical. For a while I was doing really well with staying unplugged on Sunday's, and I want to get back to that, starting this week. I do believe that it's important to have one day a week away from it all, and I need to make that a priority again. I might even get a nap in.