Recently, I took a break. It wasn’t a long break, and very few people noticed I was on a break, but I decided to switch off for a while. No opening any messages that I didn’t have to, no long conversations with friends. I just needed to take a step back for a few days and have a breather.
The world is more connected than ever nowadays, even before a once-in-a-century pandemic forced people to communicate in ways that not many had done before. Your friends are just a click away, your colleagues are always responding to an email barely after you sent it. It’s immediate, the days of waiting weeks for a letter is gone.
Communication is no longer a waiting game. In most cases at least. And that’s wonderful. But what I don’t hear many people talking about, in amongst the chatter of how wonderful technology is, is how tiring it can be. Always being on call, always being expected to answer a message seconds after it hits your inbox. It’s tiring.
Don’t get me wrong. I love tech and being able to speak to people on the other side of the world like they’re next to me.
But I also feel that we can’t pretend that it doesn’t take its toll from time to time.
This little break didn’t end up being much more than a day or two. But it was a day or two that I needed.
A guilt free breather is something I wish more people could take. Because talking to other people, I know it’s what many of us need. I know I did.
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