Candles and battery-operated lights are still extremely valuable! How did people once live like this? No lights or hot water. Trying to cook must have taken hours! No electronics of any kind. Can you imagine waiting to hear from someone, but there were no phones? Or just trying to walk into the next room. Quickly realizing you didn’t bring anything to light your path.
I found myself missing good old-fashioned board games. When people used to play games as a family, to pass the time. Give me a good game of Uno. Even Scrabble or Yahtzee, really any multi-player game. Maybe I should break out that Zombie-Opoly I have sitting in the box unopened. We have hours to kill, nothing to watch, and nowhere to be. Zombies and Monopoly mixed, why not?
I learned I felt free not being attached to my phone. Not feeling like I have to respond to every comment or text in a timely manner. Before some unknown entity comes for me! I like being left alone. I am enjoying the quiet. As I sit here typing, with no Internet, using a battery-powered light to see. This is the most relaxing time I have had in months.
Not having air conditioning in ninety-degree weather is fun as well. Seems we are trying to test the strength of our deodorant here! I would have gone to the beach, except it was too late in the day. Sleeping with the back door cracked as an air conditioner. Lucky for me, I sort of enjoy the heat.
Power blocks! Realizing I did not have one. That I suppose I should buy one. I did a late-night run to Walmart. Honestly, I dread reopening my phone. Forget recharging my phone, I need time to recharge!
We spend so much time on electronics; I don’t think we remember life without them! It can be panic-inducing not to have your phone. We use electronics as a crutch, whether for boredom or anxiety. Doom scrolling at ten pm. Just because we can’t sleep. Leaving the TV on for background noise, just so we can sleep. Without it, we feel naked. Without the constant noise, we feel out of place somehow.
I personally am starting to miss the 90’s. When no one had cell phones. There were no likes and comments. You called a landline; everyone in the house shared a phone. There was dial-up Internet if you were lucky. That was back when the Internet was still new and fun. I had to explain to my nephew that I’m older than Google! He couldn’t believe there was a time before Google! Kids nowadays have always had the Internet, since they were old enough to use a tablet. I think they will have a harder time than we adults who do remember a time before we became attached to electronics. Pay attention in public; everyone is on their phones. People don’t interact anymore; we are too busy staring at the screen. I am absolutely guilty of this myself. We all need to work on being present. For ourselves and our sanity, for the children, and for society as a whole. I miss old school dinners as a family. I know I sound like a dinosaur.
This was written by our contributing writer, Christy Granger.
Image Source: Unsplash, Vladimir Fedotov
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