Could you spend a week away, with no devices?

During a phone chat while I was away, Chris asked me this question, to which I laughed hysterically and responded adamantly ‘No! Definitely not.’

Could you spend a week away, with no devices, just buy a paper train ticket and book somewhere to stay?

A few minutes later I asked him the same question and he said he definitely could, though he’d need to be in a hotel where they have a reception, rather than an AirBnB or similar because you almost always seem to need to contact them via a mobile so somewhere you can check in at a desk would be essential.

We talked about it a bit more and he suggested that maybe the vehemence of my ‘no’ meant that I should try it, maybe just for a couple of days and perhaps pick somewhere fairly close by to start with.

It’s an interesting thought. Just thinking about it makes me feel anxious. But why? What is scary about it? Decades ago I spent all my time without devices. I didn’t have a mobile phone at uni, and that was the first time I had an email address, which I barely ever checked and could only do so from a handful of computers on campus. I did have a computer, which I used to make money doing some typesetting work (hmmm, can’t tell how I feel about the fact that I’m still making money doing similar things, decades later; I made £10/hour then; it’s gone up a fair bit since then, though not sure if it’s gone up as much as it should have done in that period).

Payphones don’t really exist anymore, of course. And I don’t know anyone’s phone numbers! But if I was staying in a hotel, rather than the middle of nowhere, that wouldn’t matter, because there would be a phone there for emergencies, and I could write down the essential numbers.

What would I be missing? The ability to take photos? Selfies? I could draw instead! What would it matter if I missed two or three days of Instagram or Facebook posts? Particularly since neither of them show me much of the things I’ve actually subscribed to, but instead show me constant suggested posts and accounts to follow, and adverts. Two or three days away from constant nudges to buy stuff? That doesn’t sound bad. And I barely see anything about friends and family on social media now, whether because everyone’s given up posting, or whether it’s ‘the algorithm’, who knows.

Two or three days without being able to read about the news and what’s happening in the world? The world’s not going to stop spinning if I’m not following it. I can find out about anything super important afterwards, and the rest of it? Doesn’t really matter.

I would miss drawing on my iPad, but… it would give me more time to draw in sketchbooks.

I wouldn’t see the family What’s App chat. What if one of the kids had a bad thing happen at school? Well, as I frequently point out, they have two parents, and the other one is very capable of supportive talk and listening, maybe with the odd joke thrown in. What if I missed some silly GIFs? Well, that I wouldn’t miss, because I really, really don’t understand them.

What if something bad happened to someone I love? Hmm... I wonder if that’s the biggest fear. Someone was seriously hurt or ill and I wasn’t there to rush to them? Well... What would I be able to do, anyway? I still don’t know any of our blood types. (Do you know yours? How did you find out?) And, as we did in the olden days, I would leave my itinerary and contact number, so people could contact me if any emergencies cropped up.

Could I have my Samsung watch on? Or be step-count free for a few days?

And what would I do? Read. Draw. Walk. Write – on paper. Take some inspiration books to flick through. Wander round and people watch (oh, but no Google Maps?)

It does sound intriguing, and I think it could be really healing. I might just do it.

What about you?

Could you spend a week away, with no devices? Have you, already? Does the idea alone make you break into a cold sweat?