Over the weekend, a long-time friend invited me to a remote private residence high in the hills for his birthday\/leaving party. We hiked up Friday afternoon and solved all the world\u2019s problems over a bonfire late into the night. There was no phone signal and, try as I might, I couldn\u2019t connect to the wi-fi on Saturday morning. I took it as a sign and switched off.<\/p>\n
We returned to civilization after a lovely lunch with new friends on Saturday and when I got home in the evening, I had lost the urge to check my phone so I decided to leave it off. The feeling remained when I woke on Sunday so I took the big decision, unplugged my wi-fi and left the world of social media behind me.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the day, I became aware of how many times I have the urge to check something on my phone. If I hadn\u2019t switched everything off, I might have given in, but discipline won out. By Monday morning, I was really beginning to believe I had missed something, but then I couldn\u2019t imagine what that might be, other than a stupid pet trick or a host of posts about how we are fucking up the planet or a life hack to save time so I have more time to waste or a personal attack on a popular figure or two in the name of humor. I didn\u2019t turn anything back on until after I finished my morning tea. I trusted my friends would still be my friends and probably wouldn\u2019t even notice I had gone missing in cyberspace.<\/p>\n
While I was disconnected, I began noticing things around my space that could use a little attention. I relaxed. I read. I cooked. I sorted. I cleared. I watched a movie. I did some writing with pen and paper.<\/p>\n
I felt a sense of freedom lined with the guilt of being out of touch.<\/p>\n
I make it my business to connect and until this weekend, I did not recognize the importance of a proper disconnect. I have started putting my phone in another room when I am relaxing and noticing the frequency of impulses to check it. I imagine it is like the impulse to light a cigarette or open a bottle of wine or switch on the tv or buy something frivolous just to feel better. I am seeing more digital detox retreats offered locally and by wellness sanctuaries across Asia and they all sound a bit like the rehab we could all use.<\/p>\n
I have chosen to create a space where we can connect easily with each other for good. Taking time away from that space offers perspective. I started my week with a new feature to update you with fresh listings<\/a> on the website directory. Today, I am running late with the newsletter because everyone\u2019s back from holiday and calendar<\/a> listings are backing up because the new design takes more time, but I will learn to live the cost of rest.<\/p>\n My constant near and far connecting with others has come at the cost of a connection here and now with me.<\/p>\n In our world with diminishing privacy, it is essential we give ourselves a bit of private time.<\/p>\n How will you switch off for you?<\/p>\n [from HK heartbeat<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the weekend, a long-time friend invited me to a remote private residence high in the hills for his birthday\/leaving party. We hiked up Friday afternoon and solved all the world\u2019s problems over a bonfire late into the night. There was no phone signal and, try as I might, I couldn\u2019t connect to the wi-fi … Continue reading “In search of privacy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kinzieology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1570,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/1570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinzie.com\/fresh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}