I recently spent a weekend at the cottage basking in the glory of hot, sunny days, cool nights and very few bugs. It was a great time enjoying family and life and being offline. Not by design of course, our high-speed modem died and there was no way to get a replacement during the few days on the lake.
I like technology and the cool tools. I’m not a first adopter like some but I fit the connected boys-with-toys demographic. So living for a few days without the Internet took a little getting used to, but I did it.
I had forgotten, however, that I could get a cell signal up the hill on the highest part of the island. I guess I was relaxed enough to not think about the hilltop phone connection. Okay, I did have a couple short work-related dreams about some problem too small to solve. But I slept well and had a blast hanging out.
So up the hill I went and surprisingly I was able to get a signal more easily than last year. Maybe this year’s Rogers/iPhone combo is better than last year’s Bell/Blackberry combo. Regardless, I was no longer completely offline. The emails arrived, nothing urgent, the little question mark about missing something faded away.
So what did I learn? It’s easier to be offline at the cottage. Also, email matters more than Twitter and the various online content I follow. That said, I’ll make sure the modem and wireless are working next time.
Campbell Communications 