Saturday is time for the Sabbath. Hard to understand why a secular heretic like me would have any interest in a Sabbath. As someone who has plugged in a little too much, I need some restriction – some disconnect – from the screens. Too much time lately spent on autopilot, numbly flicking through social media. Tech noise screaming at me, demanding my attention through vibrations and notifications. It’s overwhelming. I’m forgetting my own humanity…that I have an ancient, powerful piece of hardware sitting right between my ears. This is scary, because now it’s time to boot up the old boy and see if he still runs. Time for a tech Sabbath. Below are excerpts from a handwritten journal I kept through the day (paper? who am I?).
10:40 AM – The Siren’s call of technology. I’m fighting every impulse to grab my phone or put my headphones on. This is an experiment, my first ever tech Sabbath. I can’t even go on my phone to sync my sleep tracker. How am I supposed to know how I slept if my devices won’t tell me?
12 PM – …I’m realizing that the hardest part of doing a tech Sabbath is everyone else expecting/relying on you to use technology. Too much communication.
12:56 PM – …I’m moving slower. Less frantic. Less of a rush to get somewhere, without knowing where I’m going. It’s nice to know that I can spend time with my girlfriend without thinking about my screens.
4:56 PM – I feel like a sober person on a night out with alcoholics. As I see them get drunk, I think to myself, “Is this what I’m like when I’m drinking?”
It’s strange that being disconnected for a day becomes a day worth writing about
…this is the straightest posture I’ve had in years, not hunching down to look at my phone every few minutes. As the day goes on, I’m spacing out less. There’s a calm I’m feeling, not having a hundred notifications fighting for my attention.
[riffling through a pack of cards] Texture. That’s something lost to the digital plastic age. Touch and texture as a part of the human experience.
I like who I am much more in this place. Excited creative energy.
5:46 PM – I feel more present. Less distracted. My mind is still bouncing around, but it feels less frantic. Maybe we need religion. In a hyper-logical secular world, we need something cosmic and grand that speaks to our illogical brain. An outside force that gives us limitations, and forces us to stop, to disconnect from The Busy. Maybe it’s time to start a new faith. Religion without the religion. Something to speak to our deep spiritual nature without evoking cult-like dogma. Something with beautiful music, hymns, star-gazing, deep writing, fables, ritual.
Without God we’re losing a voice to speak to our spiritual nature. How do we find it again?
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