Untethering: Finding Your Way Through the Noise

As if life isn’t complicated enough—relationships, family, work, meaning—the whole upheaval of technology, social media, and rapid social change also now get thrown in. If you are, like us, feeling lost amongst all those shifts, there are ways to reorientate yourself, whether that’s by getting back to basics, slowing down, or untethering yourself from tech and residing in the analog life for a while. This could also be labeled “distraction sickness”, writer Andrew Solomon’s wonderful term for this.

But should you really throw your cell phone in the river? Probably not, but maybe you can leave it at home (heart racing!!!???). There are less drastic ways to untether.

If you need some incentive, seek out a place that will make you put down that phone and pause in the analog world. Below you’ll find some places to stretch that relationship with the tech in your life just a little and that will hopefully inspire you to connect with yourself instead of the internet. ⁠Let us know how this goes.⁠

“Through our constant connectivity to each other, we have become increasingly reactive to what comes to us rather than being proactive about what matters most to us. ”

— Jocelyn K. Glei

Check out our featured places to untether

Here’s a rundown of the places we’ve featured on If Lost, Start Here x so far. More to come. More places to disconnect, to unwind, to just be, away from it all.
(Did we miss something? You can contribute your ideas here!)

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