WWTKW: How connected am I?

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven’t been around lately – busy time of year at work, busy week gearing up for our Canada Day Committee Annual Golf Tourney on Saturday, and with a long, relaxing long weekend thrown in there, I haven’t been spending much time in the blogosphere!

But I’m taking a quick break today to take part in Scriptor & Kenzie’s Wednesday Q&A!

This week’s questions:

1.) How connected are you to your phone? Do you always have it on you?
2.) Would you be able to be away from your computer for an entire week?
3.) If you had to get rid of one of the following, which would it be and why? Cell phone, computer, or TV?
4.) Do you think you could ever live "off the grid"?
5.) Tell us about a time you disconnected from technology/the world and how you dealt with it. Was it good or bad?

My answers:

1.) How connected are you to your phone? Do you always have it on you?  Oh, my Blackberry and I… we’re pretty connected.  Not that I usually have anything important going on with it, but it’s usually at my side.  On the odd day that I forget it at home (it’s happened, like…twice in the past five years) I kinda feel like I’m missing my right arm…

2.) Would you be able to be away from your computer for an entire week?  Hmm.  There’s a big part of me that says yes.  I mean, I’ve gone entire weekends (including this past long weekend) without even turning a computer on.  But then… I had my phone with me, with Facebook and Twitter access.  When I went to Cuba for a week in 2011, I didn’t bring my phone with me, but I did use their computer room at the resort a few times to send emails home.  So depending on the circumstance, I think I could go a whole week without a computer.  But maybe not without a phone.

3.) If you had to get rid of one of the following, which would it be and why? Cell phone, computer, or TV?  Ummm… well, technically, I’m already kinda half-assed living without a TV because it’s so temperamental and only works when it feels like it.  But I still use the DVD player, and I go to my mom’s to watch hockey games and The Voice. lol!  If I had to get rid of one, I’d say the computer.  If I had full wifi service on my phone (which I don’t), I could use it to do pretty much everything I can do on a computer.  And despite my current asshole TV problems, I don’t think I could live without one completely.  Of course, at work my computer is essential, but otherwise… the computer could go.

4.) Do you think you could ever live "off the grid"?  Nah.  I don’t really have any interest in going “off the grid”.  You know people who often talk about deactivating their Facebook, or taking a Twitter hiatus, or a blogging break?  People who relish life without a phone or email?  I don’t have those impulses.  These forms of social media and technology keep me feeling connected - keep me feeling in the loop, and I rarely find them a hindrance.  I don’t like the thoughts of being “unreachable”.  I need to stay “on the grid”.  Fo sho.  Otherwise, I’d get panicky.

5.) Tell us about a time you disconnected from technology/the world and how you dealt with it. Was it good or bad?  I attempted to do this as much as I could that week I spent in Cuba in January 2011.  One of the goals on my 101 List was to go a whole week without checking Facebook, and I was successful in doing so that week.  I didn’t even bring my Blackberry with me on that trip.  The only time I logged on to a computer was to send a few emails to family to let them know all was going well.  At the time, my grandmother was quite ill in hospital as well, so I was nervous about leaving at that time, and the emails from home reassured me that she was okay.  How did I deal with cutting way back on technology and disconnecting from the world that week?  Oh, it wasn’t so hard… the bottomless drinks, sandy beaches, and beautiful sunny days by the pool or ocean helped, I suppose… ;)