Social Experiment

While getting ready for my trip to Europe, I started to realize just how much we rely on technology to get through the day. I don't just mean using the computer throughout the day or making phone calls here and there. For my friends and I, we are attached to the devices we use.

Even during our downtime, we are always on.

When the bus is running late in the morning, we take the chance to check our email on our phones -- computers on the go. We each have a daily ritual for updating our social networking pages so that others don't have to go very long without hearing from us in one way or another. Five minutes here? Update Twitter. Ten minutes there? Outline a blog post. Can't sleep? Clear out your inbox.

No matter what the problem, using the internet or computer is the solution.

In Europe, we won't have these distractions. We bought cheap phones we could use in case of emergency and to make the occasional homesick call home. We have to pay for internet and because it's by the hour (or sometimes by the minute), we need to know exactly what we're getting online to do.

It will be liberating, to be sure. But...

What will we do with all this free time we have? Will we find that we don't really need those early morning email checks? Or will we realize that these things are such a part of our routine, that it's almost impossible to let them go?

Only time will tell, I suppose! When it's all said and done, I will let you all know how our experiment of circumstance went and whether being disconnected meant we appreciated each other's company more... or made us realize just how much we can't stand each other.