I acknowledge I have addiction problems. My issues are not with alcohol or drugs. No, my addiction is to technology—television and all my other electronic devices.  

Compared to some, I suppose, I don’t watch a lot of TV. Still, it is turned on, at some point, every single day at our house. I’ve gotten into the habit of watching it nearly every evening after dinner.

My computer? I use it daily. There’s email, Facebook, recipe websites, weather updates, shopping sites, and word-processing for my writing. And then there’s Google to answer every possible question that might arise.

Probably the strongest obsession I have is with my phone. Like most people I know, my cell phone is almost always within reach. When my computer isn’t handy, I quickly turn to my phone. Granted, it’s a wonderful device with so many helpful features. But, I’ve also resorted to scrolling mindlessly through it repeatedly throughout the day.

With every sound alert the phone makes, I’ve become like Pavlov’s dog. I can’t ignore its draw. I’ve developed a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out). When I can’t go to it immediately and see what’s behind the chirp, beep, ring, I become restless and unable to focus. 

Unhealthy attachment to these electronics is not something I wanted to own up to. “Hey, I’m not nearly as obsessed as a lot of people,” I would tell myself. But in all honesty, I am far more dependent than I want to be.

I should have picked up the clue when I sensed my irritation and discomfort over recent cable/internet outages in our community. Evidently, that wasn’t enough to make me want to change. The lesson kept reappearing until I was finally forced to look it full in the face and decide if this was how I wanted to continue living my life.

Last week my husband and I loaded up dogs and bicycles and headed out of town for a little getaway. We had a few activities planned, but mostly we were looking forward to some relaxation and a change of scenery. We drove to the family farm, unloaded our things, and began to settle in. Home sweet home-away-from-home—or so we thought for a brief moment.  

Uh-oh! We soon realized the Direct TV wasn’t working. The next discovery was that there was no internet service either. 

On top of that, neither cordless phone connected to the landline was functional. The only phone that worked was a wall-mounted rotary dial at the far end of the house. Normally, that issue would seem inconsequential. However, there appeared to be no nearby cell towers, so our cell phones were getting very poor reception. Texting worked better than calling, but even that seemed hit-or-miss.

I was trying to stay calm and centered on gratitude, but all these issues. Seriously? How could we survive the four days we were planning to be there?

As it turned out, our days passed quickly, and we survived quite well. The television and internet issues were never resolved. No new cell towers were erected while we were there, so our cell reception remained unreliable.

The only improvement was the new cordless phone we purchased. At least we no longer had to race from one end of the house to the other to answer when telemarketers called.

During our stay we sat on the front porch to have our morning coffee, just as my parents often did when they lived in the house. We took in the cool morning air as we listened to the sounds of the birds and other nearby farm animals. We worked on puzzles, and we read and talked and laughed.  

We tuned out the news and tuned in to the peacefulness and beauty of the countryside.

We explored a state park on our bicycles, and we visited the people we’d planned to see.

And we did it all with more focus on where we were and what we were doing. All the usual distractions that come with the electronics were absent.

In hindsight, I realize last weekend was a good lesson for me. It pointed out clearly my need to step back and practice moderation, especially when it comes to my devices.

With this experience still fresh in my mind, it’s time to sit myself down and give myself a pep talk.

“Please remain calm. Step away from your electronics. Now take a deep breath. Set your intention to engage with life in real time. Seek to experience the beauty in the world. Remember the sweetness of the lesson. You can do this!”

One more thing: Big changes don’t always happen overnight. Baseball season is still going strong, so I will likely remain glued to the television until my beloved team is done. But after that, I’m aiming for “all things in moderation.”