Disconnection

by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

I had the most frustrating experience this weekend as I returned to Australia only to discover that the painters who had been painting the inside of our house had not only failed to return any of the furniture to its  rightful place but had also managed to disconnect our wifi. After 15 hours flying solo with my twin 7-year olds in tow I can't say I was  thrilled to face either prospect - but it was the disconnection from the outside world that I found the hardest to bear. 


After trying and failing to reconnect the wifi (picture a heap of tangled wires, various Apple, Sonos and wifi devices on the ground and me, tech-moron extraordinaire, standing over it all in despair) I found myself hunched over my iPhone desperately trying to send email and texts and reading the news in 4pt font. I never thought of myself as addicted to being online but once I was disconnected I realized just how ingrained my need for internet access 24/7 had become. 


It's amazing how everything I do - from my role as secretary to the local American Women's Auxiliary to my writing job - depends on email. I couldn't email the agenda for our board meeting or send my latest proposal to my agent. I was truly (if only temporarily) off the grid...and it kinda freaked me out. 


Of course, my husband has now managed to instruct me long-distance how to restore all necessary connections so I am back online but not before I realized (sadly) just how reliant I had become.


So what about you? How would you cope being 'disconnected' - would you revel in the freedom of not being tethered online or would you, like me, stare into the void and blink...