This past weekend, my husband and I decided to implement “screenless Saturday”. We have tried this in the past, with good luck, but it never seemed to stick with us as a weekly ritual. This time, however, I think we both have it in our minds to continue this to make it a weekly habit. We decided that we can’t actually have a truly screenless day, so we decided to make some rules. First, the only interaction allowed with our phones was to make or receive phone calls (and even then we tried to use voice commands as much as possible). Also, the only devices we were allowed to use were our iPods (since there is no internet connection whatsoever to them) and our Kindle since we don’t have many physical books and it’s a fairly simple single purpose device. Otherwise the only other self-imposed rule was we made focus modes for our phones that turned off all notifications but allowed phone calls to come through. Seems simple, right?

Our Saturday started as normal, and we didn’t really have anything planned for the day. After we woke up, my husband made his coffee and we sat on the couch to wake up for the day. We decided to take our dog for a walk through our neighborhood to try to beat the Midwestern heat and humidity and my husband really wanted to find a newspaper to purchase. We attempted to stop at a local convenience store in our neighborhood, but they didn’t open until 12. We decided to go to the grocery store, and found the newspaper stand tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of the store. It took us probably 10 minutes of walking around to actually find it. While I haven’t purchased a newspaper in quite some time, it was more expensive than I remember. The Saturday issuance of the New York Times was $4 and the local paper was $3. We paid and headed off to a coffee shop to read the paper! After we ordered and found a spot to sit, we pulled out our papers and the barista chuckled and said “I’m glad I’m not the only one”. That made both of us laugh as we sipped our drinks and ate our goods. We both found it interesting how good the newspaper actually is. It’s a medium filled with generally well researched articles with little fluff, the headlines make you actually want to read the articles, and you’re not spending your time dodging popup ads, text notifications, and email alerts. It’s just you and the printed words for your mind to interpret. My husband and I noted how much we learned. It’s not that we couldn’t have learned the same information from our online news aggregates, it’s just that it was a more focused experience. You turn to the paper for one thing: news. And it does that thing exceptionally well. We spent probably an hour or so at the coffee shop before heading to our next destination. 

We had heard about a new exhibit at the art museum a few days before, so we decided to check it out. It was an exhibit about the history of the American road trip through photography. We arrived at the museum and was handed a map. There was no indication on the map or through any signs of where this exhibit was. We thought maybe we misread and that the exhibit wasn’t until a later date, and my husband had the urge to pull his phone out and look it up. I insisted that if we can’t find it, then we need to ask an employee because they would be more than happy to tell us if the exhibit was live. After walking around and seeing some beautiful art (we don’t visit the museum often), we eventually found the one we were looking for! We walked through, looking at photos taken during the 20th century of the “great American road trip”, something that most people outside of the US probably do not understand. It showed pictures of people exploring the country, experiencing new parts that seemed only imaginable in our minds, and it showed people loving the journey. The latter is something that my husband and I later reflected on, and it was something that we both took away from the exhibit individually. Often in life, we are seeking toward reaching a goal, and we think once we reach that goal, everything will be better and great. For my husband and I right now, that goal is him finishing medical school. We have caught ourselves longing for the day when he becomes a fully licensed doctor and is able to practice on his own. However, we all get so focused on the end goal, that we forget to stop and appreciate the journey. We forget to appreciate that in order to make it to Yosemite, CA, you have to go through the beautiful deserts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. In my husband and I’s case, we forget that to make it to be a doctor, you have to appreciate all of the people and experiences you have along the way that you will take with you into your own practice as a physician. 

After the art museum, we decided to grab some Crumbl cookies and head to our friend Ally’s house to deliver the cookies, completely unannounced. That’s something that seems so weird in today’s age, but was far more common even just 15-20 years ago. We popped in, and what was meant to be a brief drop off turned into an hour and a half conversation. We then headed home for the evening to make some dinner. We ended up going for a run outside before dinner since the weather was far more pleasant than expected. As I was cooking, I decided to call my sister-in-law to chat and see how her and her husband’s day was going. She was taken off guard, as that’s something we have never really done before (and we’ve known each other for 2.5 years!). It ended up being a good conversation, albeit short as dinner was finishing up. Again, something that seems so weird in today’s age, but was very common 15-20 years ago. 

We finished off the evening with my husband journaling and I was putting photos that we had printed into our photo albums while listening to music on my iPod. We both took some time to reflect on our day and to make some observations. We first observed how much of our lives are taken over by technology, and how much that technology is able to remove us from the moment. Even something as simple as receiving a text message has the ability to pull you out of the moment more than most people realize. For example, I noted that if I had my phone notifying me of things during the art exhibit, I would not have truly appreciated it nearly as much as I did, and I likely would not have walked away with anything meaningful. The creep of technology working its way into every aspect of our lives happened seemingly overnight, but I think it is important for us to go back to basics by stopping in on a friend, or calling a family member just to chat. I think a large part of this is that many people feel they are connecting with others through social media, but is that really a true connection or replacement for human interaction? I don’t think it is, but that is for every person to decide individually. 

My husband and I are planning to continue this practice every Saturday (or Sunday depending on schedules). However, we also need to consider how we use our devices every other day of the week as well. Do you really need to look up when an art exhibit is active while you’re already at the museum, or can you just ask a worker who will probably offer you far more knowledge than the internet could? Hopefully going forward, we can all take the time to reflect and ask ourselves why we are truly seeking our devices.