Unplugging From the Matrix

I have to admit. I absolutely love the Matrix Trilogy of movies. The futuristic look at how we’ll eventually be dependent on computers was a thrill and a shock and… oh, wait. I need to check my email. I’ll be right back.

…

OK, I’m back. Where was I? Oh, yes. The complete dependence on computers that’s coming in the future.

I hate to break it to you. The future is now. The irony is not lost that I am the Chief Technology Officer of a company. I am as wired as the next geek-in-heels. I have 3 laptops, 1 MacBook Pro, Two wireless hubs, a guest wireless network for company visiting our beach house so they don’t suck my bandwidth, a media server for our extensive DVD collection of movies so my daughter going off to college can watch (what else?) The Matrix Trilogy remotely. Netflix is wired to my server, as is Hulu.com and I don’t even have cable or satellite, but I can pretty much watch anything on demand. My iPad is on backorder. I have a Windows Smartphone, and a Blackberry as does my husband and both our 18 year old and 15 year old daughters. I text them to wake them in the morning. They send me video during the day of funny things they see or do. We sometimes have entire conversations and no one says a single audible word. And we’re in the same room.

We use GPS for driving directions, restaurant suggestions and business tips. I tweet, and update my Facebook status on average 3 times a day. I use Foursquare and I’m the mayor of at least 10 locations, with more than 319 checkins. Oh, that reminds me, gotta check in Beach Marker 9, where I’m writing this.

Done. Still the mayor. Whew.

My point is this. We are wired. We are dependent. Technology is supposed to be a tool and not our master. This post is a little off-topic as a tech-tip, but after a full summer of building websites, launching the Imagine More University, YouSchool, GeekSchool, and generally staying completely tethered to the Matrix, let me suggest the following.

Schedule one day to unplug. To leave the phone at home. To let someone else be the mayor and to not tweet, post or update. Set the autoresponder on your email to “unplugged” and take one glorious holiday from technology.

One day. To recharge your batteries. Before you become a battery like the future humans in the Matrix.