A few weeks ago we had an apartment full of guests, which led to unusual sleeping arrangements. During this time the HyWy and I were sleeping for a few days in the living room. One night when we went to sleep I was perturbed by a rather continuous hum in our new “bedroom”. Unlike the HyWy I don’t sleep with earplugs so falling asleep with this humming sound was going to be difficult. I looked around the room at the potential culprits: the DVR, two laptops, an external hard drive, and several cell phones. It struck me then how prevalent it is to have a battery of electronic gadgets surrounding us at all times. It is one thing to be connected at all times, but I didn’t realize how much technology had made itself a part of the background in my daily life. Even in our normal bedroom I use an old cell phone as an alarm so I sleep with it nearby. In the past I have slept with my active cell phone near me at all times, but that was when family or the HyWy lived in other time zones. The omnipresence of electronics in our apartment is so common that until I focused on it I wasn’t even aware that something was running. In the end I concluded that the best option was to find and turn everything off. The HyWy stresses (and for very good reason) the fact that our bedroom is to be free of electronic stimulus.
This abundance of electronic stimulus is not unique to the home as I found out when I was in the airport today. Maybe it is the preholiday travel rush or the end of the week road warrior trip home, but I was amazed at how many people there were in the airport and more importantly how nearly every person was nursing some device (yours truly included). The terminals were lined with people camped out on the floor seeking precious real estate by power outlets of all things. To close I see a great deal of irony in my writing this reflection on my own laptop.
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