We would almost forget that there is an actual world outside this digital era. We. Are. Addicted. To every single media that you could imagine. Everything that provides us to news, information and updates. Not to mention all the social media that takes a lot of our time. It would be nice to be offline now and then but is it even possible to not use the internet for just a day?

The challenge was to go to France for just a few days, not really a big deal. I wasn’t really bored in the car until the border of Belgium came up. I immediately started loading the newspaper, all Facebook updates and the weather forecast of France and Holland. I also quickly left an Instagram for whoever would be interested (also in order that everyone would know about my absence so that they wouldn’t miss me :P). In Belgium I could read the newspaper, do the offline stuff and I read a paper magazine.

Suddenly we had a change of route… No problem, I’ll load Google Maps… Oh I forgot. And then in France I needed to ask someone something in French… Crap what was the word again for […] I miss Google Translation right now! Luckily we had WiFi at the gas station… I could load everything all over again so I wouldn’t miss a thing. We are so dependent.

Seriously?

When we arrived it was time to let everything go to be in right here right now with the people around you. That worked out pretty well. I didn’t miss the internet and it was only after 2 days I started wondering what was going on in the world. Being on WiFi only worked for a few minutes those couple of times. Nothing really interesting was going on in the world and Facebook, Face what? I realized I didn’t want to read all the same stuff people pass through.

Moral of the story, put your phone away during holiday and enjoy your well deserved time off. Act crazy and start a group conversation without What’s App or other chat applications. Buy an “old-fashioned” camera instead of using your smartphone for taking pictures. And be selective with whatever you capture. It’s a shame if you take 500 pictures of the Eiffel Tower and wondering at home how the Tower actually looked like in real life! Just 5 will do :).

Do not capture life to look at it later! Capture life in the moment itself with your own eyes! Seize the moment. Cherish life. Don’t miss the moment.

At home again I have to remind myself to be online again… Do I have to? I was so being in the holiday mode... Too bad, all good things come to an end so get off your lazy bum and ditch that writer’s block go write!