I Preferred Paper

Would you like to do a bit of traveling, but in an oldschool way? I did!

We recently did some traveling for some stuff, and it was largely a really good experience. We got to visit somewhere we had never been to before, see and meet all kinds of wonderful people and expose ourselves to new things. Overall that's what you want when you are traveling, especially when it's not thousands of miles away!

When we were getting ready and organizing the things for the traveling though, I was considering some of the things I wanted to bring. I ended up making a really good decision - bring some actual books instead of doing things on my phone or laptop!

I've been digging into a lot of health and science topics lately, as is per usual for me, but one of the really important and fascinating topics I've dove into is the really important relationship our bodies, brains and organs have to the light around us. Short summary: it's REALLY unhealthy for us!

That's not to say that we should go back and be Luddites and get rid of it all in favor of life 200 years ago. That's not good either, but we have to figure out a way to manage ourselves and our surroundings so that it's not damaging to us as much as we can, within reason.

One of the things I've been making conscious decisions to do is figure out ways to spend less time on my phone or computer and more time looking at other things and the people around me. This meant that for the plane travel and sitting around in the airport, I was using a physical book instead of a phone!

Most of the people are glued to their phones, from young children all the way up to people in their 80's and 90's. I get it, they are incredibly addicted. We don't have to be though, and the first way to get over an addiction is to recognize it is an addiction and take steps to move away from it.

I haven't flown on a plane in several years, and the last time I flew I didn't bring a book, but I also didn't really have anything that I needed to read. This time, I had plenty of things I wanted to read, and with the layovers that happen with all flights these days, I had plenty of opportunity to hang out and read! I certainly spent time with my wife and son when I could, but a lot of it was trying to finish the books I had brought!

This also meant that I was a little more aware of the people around me. Sadly the vast majority of people in the planes and airports had absolutely no clue or self awareness. They were glued completely to their devices and didn't see anything happening around them. That's definitely an unfortunate reality that I saw.. and one that I hope to change one small step at a time! The important thing for me in that regard is that my son saw me reading a book instead of nose glued to the phone. I may not be the best father in the world, but I have many things that I am really adamant about trying to instill in him - and being present in the situation is definitely one of them.

What about you, do you like to read books when you travel or do you prefer phones and technology? Let me know in the comments!