The Day Of No Technology!

Last Saturday we were challenged do a whole day with no technology by Joanna

We decided that we were still allowed to use the kettle, cooker and the washing machine, as living with a builder I was not giving up the washing machine on the one day that I can get all of his clothes washed and ready for the next day.

We had already prepared Baba that we were having a day with no technology, and he was very happy, as we had decided that we would spend the day trying to sort out his playroom. But even though he was fairly happy we did have to explain to him a few times, that no technology meant no computer, no Angry Bird games and no TV. He did get it eventually thankfully.

Our TV is the biggest technology that we use all day long. It is on from the moment we wake up, until the moment we go to sleep and we are all guilty of it. It generally is on and no one is even watching it! So I knew that it would be very odd waking up and having no TV as soon as we had breakfast.

It was quiet, and it wasn’t just me that noticed it. All of us noticed the lack of noise.

But the day was really interesting.

We got a lot done and I mean a lot done.

We didn’t stop all day and the playroom which was previously a complete junk room got really sorted out. From top to bottom. We found homes for everything, we put up the pictures and we managed to start sorting out the paperwork.

I actually wasn’t really bothered, I found it liberating not to have the computer on all day, and to be shut off from the world. It happens  so rarely now a days that it really was lovely to be hidden! I loved getting into the sorting of the house and getting things done and it did make me feel really good.

Baba also coped brilliantly. He was just playing, his imagination is fantastic and he managed to have great games with toys that he had forgotten that he had. He set up a corner in the playroom and was discovering things that he had forgotten about over the last few months.

Mr L was actually the one that had the problem, he missed the TV, he missed his XBox and he did complain quite a bit about having nothing on all day long. But he did do a lot of things throughout the day! Stuff that does usually get forgotten about due to him sitting down and watching a movie, or playing Fifa! I knew that he could live without that game.

But the best thing about having no TV, computers, phones or games was that when I was making tea, Baba and Mr L were curled up on the sofa reading a magazine. Something that before that day only ever happened in the evening before bed. It was a really lovely thing to see, and that is when I missed my technology in that one moment, as I was urging to grab my phone, or my camera to take that well deserved shot! The one of son and Daddy reading together!

So what did we learn from a day with no technology?

• We can cope without it, none of us self combusted, although I think Mr L might have if he had to do it for any longer! But we were all OK.
• It isn’t actually me that is technology obsessed as everyone thought it was!
• We can still talk, we can still use our brains, and we can still have fun and use our imaginations! (Technology does make you wonder that sometime)
• We get a lot more done with no technology.
• It is refreshing not to have people being able to contact us all day long.
• My brain felt a lot clearer!
• We are OK with no background noise, I have always been scared of complete silence and actually it is fine.
• We will be doing it again!