Last week, I was in Alaska. My sister and her husband live there, she just had her first baby and I really wanted to go see them. So I took off a week and headed up there. You can see the pictures on Flickr if you’re really that interested.
But this post isn’t about my vacation. It is about isolation from the internet. We stayed with my sister (who has very limited internet access) and a cabin north of Denali National Park with no internet (or TV or radio).
If you just follow me online, you didn’t know about the trip. I was content to not be connected this trip. And I thought it would be hard. I’ve been wired for sharing my experiences with others virtually for nearly a decade. Whether it be a crappy website, LiveJournal, this blog, Facebook, Twitter and on and on and …
It wasn’t though.
In fact, it was ridiculously easy. I turned off notifications on my phone and I used the little internet I had for frighteningly ordinary things like researching our travel route, looking up restaurants or learning about our destinations. I read for recreation, my wife and I talked about everything imaginable and we soaked in one of the last frontiers of isolation from a hurried life.
Entire days were made up of interactions with a handful of people. Like a waitress at a seemingly abandoned diner that smelled like she had bowled a dozen games at the smokiest bowling alley in Fairbanks. Or a guy who has been driving a bus for 35 years in Denali NP with a raspy voice and a beard with all of the colors between red, black and gray. Or the flagger at one of the hundreds of construction stops along our way who wanted to tell us his life story.
There are many stories like that I’ve shared in the past with you all in my travels around. It is good to share. And it is great that I can share it all the instant it occurs.
All of that sharing is at the cost of a full experience though. I have been so focused on the rewards of sharing that I often miss out on the rewards of experiencing fully everything that is going on. As we vacationed this time around, we would observe and experience the things we were doing first. We would talk about the people, places and things we had seen. We discussed amazing experiences that happened that day and reflected on them. We were thoughtful and irreverent all the same.
My experience in Alaska was vivid and fantastic because of this. I could write about it endlessly, talking about otherwise mundane details brought to life through conversation or viewing it in a different light. All of this is remembered because I chose to focus on sharing my experience as a secondary force instead of it being first.
So now I wonder…
- What else have I missed from being so focused on just the sharable parts of my experience?
- Is live twitter and blog coverage shallow and often lacking subtleties and real insight?
- Does my writing suffer when I focus on getting a story to share?
- Do I miss significant lessons from speakers when I’m focused on pushing stuff out?
- If I’m not being fully contemplative, am I really bringing my best to my readers?
I’m not leaving social media but I think my approach (and the approach of others) is shifting with these realizations.
What’s your take?
August 23, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Lance,
Great post. As I was reading this, I thought about taking pictures on vacations with my family. Often, we are so focused on capturing a snapshot in time that we pose, repose, and ultimately spend more time taking pictures than enjoying what we are trying to capture.
We stopped doing this and have instead focused on enjoying our vacation. If it is permanently captured, great. If not, we still had a great time on vacation.
As for social media usage, I think your approach is heavily dependent on what you are using it for. Since people use the medium for a variety of purposes, only the individual can answer that question.
Cheers,
Omowale
August 24, 2010 at 5:44 am
Exactly what I was going to say Omowale. I no longer take photographs on scenic vacations — the postcards are usually better anyway — to spend more time experiencing it. But sometimes memories do fade, though so do pictures.
August 24, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Great point Omowale. I like the picture analogy. It is so perfect as to what I’m trying to demonstrate.
When we saw Mt McKinley, we just wanted to get some pictures of it. It was beautiful but not terribly impressive (what can I say, the Pacific NW spoils you). When I stopped taking pictures, I noticed that the “little” mountains surrounding McKinley were a mere 10-14,000 feet high! It made me look at the mountain in a whole different light and context before.
All because I pulled the camera away from my face for a few seconds.
August 23, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Gosh, Lance, I wish you had live blogged the entire thing…then it would have been the same as being there. I could have gotten the entire context of what it’s like to travel to remote Alaska.
Really interesting thoughts. I do think that paying attention — being in the moment — is where it’s at. I think live blogging and Tweeting is going to fade. I want to read the people who immerse themselves and think about their experiences. Think: Hunter S. Thompson as a HR blogger. Live it. Analyze it. But don’t be a featherweight with live Tweets.
Thanks for the insight, Lance. You’ve always been the thinking guy’s writer.
August 24, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Haha, this is great, Frank.
So I’ve tried livetweeting and I haven’t fully decided if I’m just awful at it or if it is really just a pointless exercise in some very short term gain. I may write my posts fairly quickly but its usually been preceded by hours, weeks or months of though on a subject.
I can accept that I’m a slow thinker but I’d love to see how quickly a person chews on what they tweet and what that tweet means days, weeks or months after the fact? A post on my blog can be revisited, commented upon and updated.
August 23, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Lance, soo….. how was Alaska?! I was there about 2 years ago and had the same experience – completely unplugged and in awe of the glaciers, quiet, and singular moments. Sometimes I forget that I don’t have to venture so far from home to have the same peace – thank you for the reminder. Oh, welcome back!
August 24, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Thanks Lisa.
Alaska itself definitely helps the unplugging process, right? When you don’t have access, you don’t have access. But the way I felt up there was great. I’m writing this post to remind myself I don’t have to take a vacation every five years to truly unplug (even if only for a couple of days).
August 23, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Lance,
You bring up a great point. In the larger sense, how much do we miss by trying to multi-task? I’ve lately found myself shutting off my computer/phone/whatever device I’m on completely, just to be sure to pay attention to what’s happening around me. I’m happy to know that I’m not the only one thinking about this!
Katie
Community Manager | Radian6
@misskatiemo
August 24, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I’m a big fan of this, Katie. From being essentially a digital worker, I know what multi-tasking does to my project productivity (down, down, down). But I never considered what it did to my focus, my passion and my renewal.
August 23, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Hi Lance,
Glad you lived to tell about the experience. It seems most of what you tend to see on social media sites is superficial and narcissistic, hence the reason I am treading lightly as I venture into it. I hope your experience will be one positive step in making it more real for everyone.
August 24, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Thanks Rob. I’m glad I lived through bears and wolves and social media absence too.
I think you’re right about the superficial (and to a lesser extent, narcissism). It’s easy to do that because what is most easily observable is what is most easily sharable.
August 24, 2010 at 10:29 am
I love this post and really appreciate you sharing your experience here.
I made a resolution, two years ago that at least ONE day a week I would 100% unplug. It’s usually my Saturday or a weekend day…sometimes it turns to just an evening after work but I try to always do it. Furthermore, I take week long trips at least once a year and I unplug. I write about it afterward (paradox?)
because it’s so refreshing and I can’t believe more people don’t do it.
Luckily, my job supports that because by unplugging, you recharge and are ready to charge afterward. It’s true, real interaction and giving what you truly have as an individual is the most authentic – pre-twitter, blogs, internet, etc.
It’s an interesting thing to think if you focus less or push too hard…maybe we miss certain interactions if we’re always plugged in. I’m not sure. I think it’s important to take time for yourself and unplugging, more than once a year. I have been doing it the last few years and it’s enlightening.
This is one I wrote last year on a similar topic: http://smallhandsbigideas.com/generation-y/are-you-always-plugged-in/
August 24, 2010 at 11:34 pm
Thanks Grace.
I thought I did the once a week thing pretty well but then my phone would be going off on the weekends and I would casually check it and get engrossed in something happening on Twitter or Facebook or a recent e-mail.
To me, the focus on just simply living is too important not to write about. Sometimes capturing that moment is important. That’s what this post was about. And maybe to question how plugged in I want to be going forward.
August 25, 2010 at 5:23 am
Great post, good questions. Thank you for sharing it.
August 25, 2010 at 6:31 am
Lance:
Great post. I had a similar experience. This past May/June my wife and I went to Greece for two weeks. No phone, no computer. We did find an Internet cafe to check personal email, mostly to check on family. Other than that we were disconnected. VERY RELAXING. The reading I did was for enjoyment and had nothing to do with work. I did not however put down the camera. But I made sure I looked over the camera lens as well as through it. As a result of that experience I find it easier to disconnect at home now. It helps the brain.
September 21, 2010 at 9:25 am
Hi Lance,
I dream of going to Alaska one day – but thats another story!
Wow – very thought provoking stuff. I think you are right; we are becoming slaves to the media – “what can I blog – what can I RT – do I have enough friends on FB – whats my next article or pithy comment on LinkekdIn group ” etc. It does become addictive and an enforced isolation helps us throught the “cold turkey” and re-evaluate what we are really doing it for!
Thanks for sharing
Matt
October 4, 2010 at 4:36 pm
After participating in multiple group vacations with other females in their mid-twenties, I have countless pictures of me on social sites posing in front of the eifel tower, getting hit by a wave in the carribean and eating who knows what in Europe. My point is that, people go on these trips planning to create facebook albums before they even pack. The first thing someone says when you tell them you are going on a trip is “I want to see the pictures”! Therefore, we spend our vacation time planning poses that will make the best pictures just to share with others. We even upload some at some internet cafe we find while on our trip just to update other people. Why is this a part of a vacation? Do we really NEED people to “like” our picture posing with a crawfish in New Orleans.