I’m “had a pager” years old.
That’s BEFORE “pay PER text” years old. (Yes, you used to have to pay for each text message you sent AND received.)
If you’re “smart phone” years young… you’ve always had it made.
I was in high school when I got my pager. My parent’s didn’t pay for my pager, though they probably should have because the only one that ever paged me was my mom.
Remembering back, I was at a basketball game when my mom paged me to call her ASAP. My heart started racing as I ran around the school to the pay phone area, my hands were shaking as I pulled the coins from my pocket and dialed our home number. I couldn’t even guess at what horrible thing happened, but I was grateful that I could be reached.
Me: “Mom, what is it? Is everyone OK?”
Mom: “Hey, stop and pick your brother up some face wash on the way home, he’s out.”
Me: “MOM, what’s the ASAP emergency? Is everyone OK?”
Mom: “Yeah, everyone’s ok, your brother is out of face wash, pick some up.”
My brain thinking: are you fucking kidding me right now? NOT an emergency.
My mom doesn’t understand what constitutes as an emergency.
She did that two more times before I canceled my pager subscription. If she couldn’t understand emergency and ASAP, I couldn’t keep getting the beeper messages.
Enter cellphones.
Luckily for me, when I bought my first cell phone, my mom didn’t have a cell phone. I was saved from, “call me ASAP” texts; though I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have text if she would have been charged too.
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When my boys were little I created song melody for my phone number. We would sing it together. It made learning my phone number easy for them. It made me feel at ease knowing when I was working nights they could call me if they needed to, especially since their dad tends to need more sleep than the average bear.
When Apple released the Apple Watch I knew it was something I needed. I was bartending when it was released and most of my co-workers were constantly checking their phones. They were distracted by messages coming through, phone calls or social media updates. The distractions caused some angry patrons.
Maybe it’s because I had bartended previously. Back in a time that cell phones were not in everyone’s pocket. It was a time when people got their updates from PEOPLE. Conversations and camaraderie happened on “thirsty Thursday’s” after a meeting at city hall. A gathering of neighbors and a community coming together over happy hour. That time was magical. Now people were sneaking videos of people and posting them to just be mean.
I didn’t even want my phone by me when I was working. I’d much rather have the conversation than go scrolling. It’s what made the Apple Watch perfect for me. I could be alerted if needed but I could focus on what I was doing. A pager for the new age 🤣
The same held true for my daytime gig, teaching yoga. My watch allowed me to breath a little easier knowing if the school needed to call me I could see the call come across on my watch and it wouldn’t disrupt my class.
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I have a wide variety of people in my friend group, some of which are very eccentric. A year or two ago, I dropped the big one off at football practice and ran to the art store for school project supplies. One of my eccentric friends was coming out of another store. She is an energy healer. We connected over the years working in the service industry together and natural healing.
Our conversation weaved in, out and took unexpected turns in the 10 minutes we were together. Somehow it turned to technology. She was lecturing on people listening to their body instead of depending on apps and devices to know what their body needed. “People should move when their body feels like moving and take a rest when they need to rest!” Then she pointed at my treasured watch, “do you know what that is doing to your body? You’re constantly around EMF frequencies and it’s messing with your body’s natural rhythms. People need to unplug!”
That conversation hung around in the back of my mind for months, like a good angel on my shoulder.
I didn’t stop wearing my watch.
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My men knew I liked my watch so much they upgraded me for my birthday last year. I’m not really sure, maybe it’s the magic of firsts but I didn’t like the new watch as much as my older one. The new one has a smaller screen, it’s capable of WAY more but the smaller screen is kind hard to get used to. Plus, it yells at me a LOT. It’s always telling me to stand up or to move more. While the reminders are nice, being constantly nagged is NOT fun.
It wasn’t until we went to the Vikings game that I started questioning if it was worth wearing it.
I could NOT get through security.
Unfortunately, this is not unusual for me. During a Twins game it took me FOUR attempts to get through security. I was starting to wonder if the security guard was a part-time psychic.
After I failed going through the second time the Twins security guard asked, “Do you have an eye glasses case on you?”
Me: “Yes, I do!” I make another attempt and failed.
Security guard: “Do you have altoids in your bag?”
Me: “Yes, I do!”
On the fourth attempt I made it through but a part of me kind of wished I hadn’t JUST to see if that guard would have guessed EVERYTHING I was carrying!
Back to the Vikings game… after the Twins experience I was VERY careful to not bring anything out of the ordinary in my recently purchased “stadium approved” see-through clutch.
But.
I
Could
NOT
Get
Through
Security!
I’m glad we met some friends for a drink beforehand. We followed them to the gates and LUCKILY our friend asked me if I was wearing an Apple Watch, which I was. He told me to put my hand over the watch and then try to go through.
Like magic, it worked!
You might think that was the time that the Good Healing Angel appeared on my shoulder gently nudging me to unplug. It wasn’t. In fact it would be MONTHS before I even gave her another thought.
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I like to drive without the radio on. To be honest my Jeep is pretty loud with it’s mud tires and sometimes I can’t hear what the kids are saying, plus I REALLY dislike commercial breaks, so I often have the radio off and we just talk or I talk to myself. 🤣
My oldest is OBSESSED with music. If we’re in the car longer than 15 mins then he wants to play DJ and have Spotify on. Lately, my Wrangler has been having radio issues. Spotify will connect but then it will pause songs then play them on super speed, no joke ten times faster than normal. The oldest gets so mad he threatens to trade my Jeep in. I told him it wasn’t my Jeep but I didn’t know what was causing it.
One day, I left the fam in my Jeep while I ran in quick to the store. When I returned my hubs said that the radio didn’t mess up at all. He asked me if I thought it could be my watch that was messing with it. It made sense because my Jeep was newly doing this. I started taking my watch off before I drove and wouldn’t you know Spotify works like a dream.
It was then that the Angel returned. Prompting me to unplug. This time, I have. I miss knowing the time, date and moon phase but I feel better.
Do electronics affect you? How often do you unplug?
Namaste,
Jes xoxo