Living Connected

I have an almost religious zeal - not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up. ~Dan Millman

I have become a connected individual. Being connected is quite a change from the world of my youth when most homes had one rotary phone and viewed having a second as a luxury, viewed having a touch tone phone as the be all to end all. If we were out playing, there was little chance my mom could find us for we roamed on our bicycles over the neighborhoods both near and far, spent many hours in the local prairie where we were insulated from the prying eyes of adults in the event we wanted to get into any mischief, and mischief we did a plenty. The only way mom could signal us was to ring the gold colored bell attached to the soffit of our home, a sound the whole neighborhood new as our signal to get home, a sound that had us running for lunch or dinner or to get ready for church.

Being connected is quite a change from my 30s when, for a long time, I refused to purchase a cell phone, refused to succumb to the fad running rampant in society. I finally broke down and bought a phone so my kids, who were home from school getting into their own brand of mischief while I was at work, could get a hold of me in the event of an emergency. That first phone was ugly, uglier than the brick phones available a few years later. A phone that was way too big to easily stuff into a pocket so it was carried in a phone holder attached to my belt. It had one function and that was to make phone calls. No texting. No browsing. Just plain old making a phone call. I was connected but, the calls were expensive, so it was only used in emergencies.

That was just under two decades ago but, in terms of technology, it may well have been the stone age. With modern phones and the internet, I am always connected, always have information at my fingertips, always able to contact to my family and friends. There have been times when I am simultaneously connected on three fronts with my laptop and my iPad and my iPhone all active for different uses such as browsing the web, playing an online game with my friends, and texting other friends. I have become so used to being able to access the internet at my every whim that, when I don't have access for some reason, I get antsy. I can no longer image life without being connected, can't imagine going through a day without having the world at my fingertips, can't imagine anything other than living connected.