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March 6, 2013 By Kristina

Unplugged

I hate feeling like I can’t live without being attached to a material item, but that’s exactly how I started feeling with my iPhone. I was constantly connected to it, checking emails all day, twitter updates flooding my phone and me in turn responding right away and in return “hanging out” for way too much time, same with Instagram.

I would sit at night nursing A rocking her to sleep and I’d be connected to the web-o-sphere – twitter, Pinterest, IG. So much so Ryan would say “what do you do on your phone all the time? And I would reply “nothing” because in the grand scheme of things, I really was doing nothing of any type of importance.

Or I’d get sucked into that Temple Run game, have you played that addictive little sucker? Guess what, they have Temple Run 2 now and I’ll be damned if it isn’t even more addicting than the first. Trying to hit goal after goal after goal to keep moving up in the game. A few days of that and I had to delete the darn thing.

Finally I was done, and had enough – with all of it.
I need to make a change, because honestly I started hating the feeling of being connected all the time – it’s draining.

So two Mondays ago I announced on twitter that I was unplugging from Twitter, IG and Pinterest. Frankly, as most of you remember I didn’t blog that week either..

At first I left the apps on my phone and turned off notifications but by the end of the day I decided it was far too tempting to hop back on.

So I deleted the apps from my phone.
If I wanted to check them I had to connect to the net, and manually log in every time because I have my settings set up to clear cache so my memory isn’t bogged down.

Manually logging in every time made it more complex – more work, it took more time than clicking an app icon. Did I though? Yes, but only about once a day that week if anything on twitter but that was it. No Instagram, no blogging, just me unplugged and it felt great.

I got caught up on things that I had been feeling behind on and I started feeling like I was finally separate from my phone. I was spending more quality time with Ryan and A. I had quality time before, but I had even more quality time and that made me feel amazing. My phone wasn’t buzzing in during dinner.

Throughout the week I did get a few “checking on you” emails from some of my sweet friends, and I explained the situation, I explained that I felt too connected and too dependent. I thought I was the only one that felt that way but I wasn’t. My friend Cody felt the same way, and ironically wrote a post about it the same week I disconnected, via a Google Chat she led me to her post (you can read it here) about how she’s learning to Shut.It.Down. and we talked about the benefits she started seeing in her life and with those around her.

I got caught up. I finally felt free and frankly it’s exactly what I needed. After the week was over I re-downloaded twitter and instagram but this time it was different, I knew what it felt like to be disconnected and I liked that feeling so I left my push notifications off from Twitter (hence why my responses aren’t always quite as quick as before), but I left my Direct Messages notifications on because usually if someone DMs me they really want to talk to me, and they are less frequent. I can plug-in on my terms, when I want to – which is usually a couple times a day, it’s not all day long anymore. And it feels amazing.

Oh, and I remembered to download Pinterest too, just last night and I honestly almost forgot all about it. Crazy, right?

Do you ever feel the need to disconnect? Do you ever feel owned by cell phone?

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: disconnect, instagram, intentional, social media, twitter

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Comments

  1. AvatarSantana Vitales says

    March 6, 2013 at 5:40 am

    I have those times when I just MIA on everything… I love it… I mean twitter & ig is not what life is about… I totally understand.

    • AvatarKristina Streeter says

      March 6, 2013 at 7:31 pm

      Exactly!

  2. AvatarKaty Vannicola says

    March 6, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    That sounds great!! We are addicted to our phones too! It seems like the “smarter” they get the more they are in our hands. I have enjoyed reading this post and it makes me want to talk to Daniel and say ok, let’s start by each night at this time putting down all technology and just spending time with each other and Reba! Amazing post!

    • AvatarKristina Streeter says

      March 6, 2013 at 7:32 pm

      It’s so important and let me tell ya – it feels AMAZING!

  3. AvatarShirley Ann says

    March 6, 2013 at 7:12 pm

    Girl, I am always wishing I could delete all those apps from my phone. Twitter and facebook drive me nuts! I really don’t know why I hang on to the apps. I keep telling myself I’ll get my time management lined up and I’ll get better…. We’ll see. 😀

    Your SHOP is looking so fabulous! I know you’ve been working hard on it; it’s so great to see it come together! 😀

    S

    • AvatarKristina Streeter says

      March 6, 2013 at 7:32 pm

      I hear ya! I obviously don’t have FB, but for twitter it totally helped that I turned off push notifications!!!!

      And thanks friend!

  4. AvatarSkyMommy says

    March 8, 2013 at 10:06 am

    Sometimes I’m tempted to do this. I have to force myself to put my phone down be in the moment sometimes and even then I feel my hand going to my phone unconsciously. I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to delete the apps though….

    • AvatarKristina Streeter says

      March 31, 2013 at 4:21 am

      I knew that deleting the apps could be totally temporary, that’s why I was willing to do it. I’ve found that even thought it was only a week it really did help keep me in check.

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Hi, I'm Kristina and I’m so glad that you are here.
I'm a crunchy, homeschooling mama of 3 that is on a mission to live an intentional life. I don’t want to just survive - I want to thrive. Join me as I share in my journey of intentional living, my passions, my family, my heart, natural living, and the things I’m loving. Welcome. Learn more >



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