Preparations: Panicking About the Technology Fast

I’m very worried about this technology fast.

At first, I wasn’t worried because I grew up in a house without a TV and I don’t use my cell phone much (weird, I know). I am pretty attached to my computer and the internet (especially facebook), but I really don’t think I’ll miss it much. My big worry is being without my ipod.

I love music. I’ve always loved music—both listening to and participating in music. I was in choral, band, concert choir, and musicals in high school. To me, one of the most important parts of the Mass is the music, and I often judge a church on how good its music is. Music relaxes me, lifts my mood, makes me want to dance, and distracts me from problems in my life.

It’s the distracting that is the whole reason behind this technology fast: the whole point of the technology fast is to be present in the moment to ourselves (what we’re thinking and feeling), learning to live simply and recognize the difference between needs and wants, to get to know our community instead of staying in such close contact with people who aren’t there, and to the other people in our community.

As my sister, Laura, and my roommate from my senior year at Salem, Jane, can attest, I am addicted to the music of Tegan and Sara. I feely admit I’m addicted and I warned Jane not long after we moved in. Fortunately, Jane likes T+S too—or at least she did (it’s very possible she got sick of them and now hates them, I don’t know). In the past two years or so I don’t think I’ve gone more than two or three days without listening to T+S music.

I’m not sure what it is about their music, but on a good day it makes me feel even happier, and almost without fail helps me feel better on a bad day—even if only a little bit. I have a playlist on my ipod called “feel better” that I listen to when I’m stressed out, angry, or sad. On this playlist are the songs that give me comfort or can always make me feel better, and of the 60 songs on this playlist, 24 are Tegan and Sara songs.

Long before I was a Tegan and Sara fan (and that was a long time ago since I started listening to them in high school), music has been a sort of lifeline for me—as I know it is for many people, particularly teenagers. I honestly don’t know what it will be like to go a month and a half without my ipod.

I’m not trying to be overdramatic—I know I’ll survive a month and a half without music. However, I do anticipate that the first month is likely to be one of the most challenging months this year and the time when I will most want to have Tegan and Sara handy.

In the past few years, I’ve become very good at finding the positive in most situations, and--outside of the obvious possible positive effects of the technology fast (simplifying my life, being present in the moment, getting to know my community and participating in community instead of people I’m not with or locking myself in my room with my music, etc.)--once the first month plus some weeks are over and I can have my ipod I’ll probably appreciate my music even more. After all, we all know distance makes the heart grow fonder.

About Experiment in Sharing

I’ve decided to start a blog—something I’ve actually been opposed to doing for a long time—to chronicle my year of service (August 2010 to August 2011). I have some reservations about blogging (and I think I should disclose right now that I almost never read blogs and I have no idea what I’m doing), but I think it’s important to have a record of this year. In addition to recording the events of this year, I want to have a way to share my experiences with a large number of family members and friends, I want to let others know what a year of service could be like and potentially encourage them to look into doing service, and I will hopefully bring some attention—however small—to different issues I care about.

I’m calling this blog “Experiment in Sharing” because I typically don’t share my personal experiences and feelings with many people. Sharing in so public a way is new for me and I don’t know how it’s going to work out.

This whole year is an experiment, an adventure, and a challenge in many ways and one of my experiments is sharing. Not only will I be sharing my experiences on the internet for any random internet user to read, but I’ll also be sharing myself with those I live in community with and those I work with. Since I’m living in community with other volunteers, I’ll be sharing space (though this isn’t new since I’ve never lived alone and I always had a roommate in college), but more than sharing space, every week the community meets to discuss things such as spirituality and our experiences at our work sites. I’m sure we’ll be sharing our thoughts, feelings, fears, doubts, etc, and this is the kind of sharing that will be the real experiment—and challenge—for me.

I’m sure some topics I’m likely to write about are spirituality, living in community, my work (I’ll be working for Catholic Charities’ Immigration and Refugee Services), health, social justice, the environment, feminism, equality, Catholicism, books, things I learn from the people I live with and the people I’m serving, and I’m sure many other topics I can’t yet anticipate.

I intend for this to be an intelligent, thoughtful, and honest blog, and I hope that people will give me constructive critical feedback if I’m really missing something or if this blog becomes something else.


A few disclaimers:
For the first month of this year, I’ll be participating in a technology fast (no computer, cell phone, TV, ipod, etc.), so I won’t be posting during that month. After the first month, I may not post very frequently because I won’t have internet access at home.
I also want to apologize in advance for any errors because I’ve found I’m blind to errors in my writing until I print it off and read it in hard copy and I don’t plan on doing that before I post things.


So, thank you for sharing this experiment with me—I hope it’s a successful one for all.