It’s been a crazy few weeks for my young self. I’ve ‘moved interstate’ & quit my job, mostly to create some kind of change, without being to concerned about the particular outcome.
And it’s been a little stressful, if not refreshing and rewarding… well it will be when things settle down. Currently I’m waiting to hear back on a few jobs and some houses I’ve applied for, but in the meantime I’m homeless and jobless 
.
However, the most difficult thing has been a lack of internet connection.
Before I moved, I had a habit of writing a blog post everyday and updating my Facebook and Twitter statuses atleast once a day. I was maintaining a dialogue with my friends and connections through comments on my blog, responses to my twitter and facebook wall posts… But now, without internet I’ve not been able to stay connected, and its been rather unsatisfying.
Traffic to my blog has declined and @replies on Twitter have stopped. But I also feel emotionally disconnected from the friends I’d been connecting with on a daily basis.
So the best way to fall out of’ love’ with your friends is to remove the tools that enabled you to connect.
Other tools that you may not realise you rely on to maintain your relationships:
- Sport
- Business networking
- Work
- Dinner parties
- Socialising
- Mobile phones
- Email accounts
What would happen to your relationships if these tools no longer existed?
It happens to the best of us when our circumstances change.
I look forward to connecting with you again soon!
February 16th, 2009 on 6:54 pm
I think we all get very used to always on internet. I have access for about 80 percent of my day. On a recent holiday not having access for a few days was a bit wierd. I got over it. I am sure you will too. Take care. Pretty adventurous. I haven’t taken off without much of plan for over 25 years. Doubt I would do it now with my current responsibilities.
February 17th, 2009 on 7:22 am
It’s a funny thing to realize that I grew up without the internet, and pretty much without even a computer in the first 10 years of school.
And now I have an iPhone and I’ve reached the point where if I can’t access high speed internet within seconds, wherever I am, 24 hrs a day, I get anxious.
Of course the unlimited and dirt cheap plans for the iPhone encourage this here in the USA. Australia I know has some more draconian mobile data plans.
Cheer
Patrick
February 20th, 2009 on 11:42 am
Did not realise that the whole move was quite so gravitational, quit your job and all!!!!!
The internet and the way we communicate is indeed the way – the spontaneous communication makes it such a powerful tool.
February 26th, 2009 on 1:11 pm
… who are you again? Oh yeah, that dude that we used to see on Twitter and our blogs.
My fave description of a community (online or otherwise) – if you stop showing up, people notice you are missing.
Get an iphone, stay connected. Or else. Hah.
February 26th, 2009 on 1:21 pm
Colin, it’s refreshing and exciting, so glad i did it
Patrick, I’m so jealous of US plans, pity Australia is a logistical nightmare for telcos
Jim, yea, was a big one, have a few things lined up, but am currently consulting, but the work is not unlimited
Laurel, me? Dude? Shucks, I thought I was a country bumpkin nerd-a-zoid. ha.
March 12th, 2009 on 4:23 pm
Shite – I’m going away to the UK for three weeks in June/July. I’ll be a nobody when I return… if I wasn’t a nobody already.
March 15th, 2009 on 7:07 pm
you realise you can get free internet access pretty much everywhere don’t you?
When travelling (for three months) between London and Melbourne, and for the first two months of my life in Melbourne, I didn’t once suffer for the lack of a free internet connection. Even now, with access at home I have two libraries within ten minutes walk where I can get connected, a cinema, god only knows how many cafes, and a nearby railway station (actually, that last one might not strictly be ‘free’…)
There’s no excuse.