Today No Wi-fi, Talk To Each Other!

When we finish all our work activities and, finally, we go on vacation, the simple fact of changing habits, landscapes and context becomes a real dilemma for more than one person.

If we book a room at a hotel, we will certainly look for one that offers wi-fi service. If we go to eat in a restaurant or if we go for a beer somewhere, we always hope to find free connection for our electronic devices.

We live in an interconnected society, which implies great personal, emotional and work benefits, but also changes in the way we relate to others and experience time.

Internet, social networks, smartphones, tablets, introduce us to a world where immediacy is a priority, where information is collected in a second and immediately shared, in which we are all united without the need to be physically close.

All this certainly implies great advantages, but it changes us in many aspects; in particular, we are afraid of being “disconnected”.

The fact of being without wi-fi, having a cell phone that does not take or noticing that the gigabytes of our data connection are running out, makes us feel isolated and uninformed. Suddenly, that umbilical cord breaks that connects us with the rest of the world and we find ourselves face to face with what surrounds us.

It is very likely that what we are in front of at that moment is, in fact, the most important thing in our life.

The subtle fear of disconnection

What would a day without internet connection be like in the common imagination?

First, we would not be informed of the facts. We know that the means of communication such as television and radio can still be used, but the news does not arrive as immediately as it happens when on the web pages we usually view.

Staying disconnected also means to stop relating to others through social networks and, therefore, not knowing what they are doing. Such a state of disconnection would force us to pay attention to the reality closest to us and more tangible.

Does this mean that we should turn off all our electronic devices and start living without the internet? Absolutely not. As we said before , the internet is a great tool for communication, knowledge and work ; it enriches our daily life and allows us to grow, learn, create, etc.

However, like everything in life, the best solution lies in balance:

• We don’t have to obsess over the cell phone and come to believe that if we don’t use it for 20 minutes, we will lose too much information.
• Internet is an important tool, but it must be seen as one of the different elements of our days. It is a key that allows us access to various dimensions, but we must not turn it into the core of our lifestyle.
• Every day, if we pay too much attention to social networks, we miss out on a lot of things happening around us.

Life is not made up of moments that must be shared on  social networks to get “likes”. Life is made up of moments to be memorized in our hearts, in the silence and complicity of the people we love.

The importance of getting rich with everything, but in a balanced way

We must not fall into excesses, but neither should we close doors: the internet is something positive. Society rises above a network of infinite connections, on which data, information flow and in which knowledge and emotions are shared.

How could we put a limit on something that has no shape and that makes life easier for us? New technologies must be a tool in our hands, but not a single window through which we look out to see life and let it flow before our eyes. So we let it slip away.

Don’t be afraid to find yourself in a place where your mobile phone doesn’t pick up, where there is no wi-fi network. Surely there are people who cannot do without it, but it is good that they know that there is the possibility of leaving the mobile phone in the bag or pocket for quite some time.

These are moments in which not only are our electronic devices disconnected, but we are too: we are finally disconnected from the news of the world, from that vibration that warns us that we have received a message, from those “likes” we have received on photos posted on Facebook.

And the disconnection does not matter: breathe and enjoy this break in an environment where the only possible communication channels are words, smiles, caresses and silences from which entire universes can be deciphered.

We all need those moments in which to break the bond with our daily duties, with noise, with artificiality. In those moments, we have the opportunity to connect with ourselves without artifice, with honesty and pleasure. It’s nice to enjoy the things around us, without needing anything else!

Images courtesy of Mariana Kalacheva