My Thanksgiving Digital Detox Fail

Have you ever tried a digital detox while staying in your own home?

I have. I tried to not turn on my phone and computer during Thanksgiving and I barely lasted two days.

My first fail was my watch. I have a smart watch. It's not the super expensive kind, but a functional non branded one that is linked to my phone. My phone is linked to my emails. 

You get the idea.

I ignored my watch when it beeped at me during the dinner preparation. I thought I turned it off in the settings menu. But lo and behold, it kept on beeping every time there was a new message. 

My young children were helping me in the kitchen but every time my watch beeped, it was like an intrusion into our private family life. It felt like my watch was nudging my perfect family bubble, reminding me that I was missing out.

Are we missing out on life when we are with our loved ones? What could be more important than family?

I took my watch off and put it in a different room. I ignored it as our dinner was served. But my watch was still connected, and when the silence fell on our house later on, I could hear the vibrations on the table from next door.

Beep, beep. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Your messages need you…

My watch vibrated little reminders - disrupting my family bliss.

Technology is great and we rely on it. I was teaching my class earlier this week and the internet went down for an hour while I was trying to teach a geography lesson. I had planned on showing the children a video of rivers for our topic of waterways when the internet stopped working. 

I had to improvise and go "old school" by looking in children's atlases and photographs. It was the way I was taught about rivers. Nowadays through the internet, I can show the children these rivers in real life. It is so much easier to teach young children if they can experience a place with their own eyes. Their learning is much more engaging and fun.

Have you ever tried to do something without the internet?

What is our world coming to with this dependence on the digital world? 

What are we teaching our children? 

I'm one of those people who try and see the goodness in most things. As much as I tried to go without my inbox and messages during Thanksgiving, I failed. 

I lasted 24 hours, then I checked my phone. My youngest boy was shocked and told me so yesterday. But in my defence, I received an email that I just had to respond to. It was from my friend who needed my help.

The takeaway from my failed digital detox over Thanksgiving was this: not all digital messages are bad. Sometimes, they are necessary. 

I welcome the internet into my life but I draw the line when it takes over my family. I try and have family time without my phone during meal times, and we also have regular family meetings when we talk things out. 

All of us. My young children are included. I believe everyone's voice matter, young and old. 

How do you live with technology? Do you have a balance or is one winning over the other?

My name is Lizzy. I'm a trauma survivor, a wife, a mom, a teacher and an author.

If you like reading about what it's like to live after trauma then please follow me.

For more about me: www.elizabethwoodsauthor.com

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Book 5: Restoring Hope from the Cedar's Port thriller romance series is coming in the New Year. If you haven't read the series, here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQRNST2B?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_sft_tkin_tpbk&qid=1764452723&sr=8-1

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