Breaking Free from Constant Accessibility
My husband and I recently went on a 5-day camping trip through Central Oregon and the Oregon Coast. For most of the trip, cell service was spotty or non-existent.
At first, it was unnerving. I’m someone who likes to stay “up-to-date” on emails, texts, and social media. My mind started spinning: What if someone is trying to reach me and can’t? Shouldn’t I be responding to comments on my business posts or LinkedIn messages?
What I realized quickly was that much of this urgency is self-imposed pressure. Somewhere inside, I’d created this low-grade expectation that I should always be available, responsive, and “on point.”
Even though I’ve built some healthy habits to manage my anxiety around technology - I keep my phone on silent, I’ve turned off those red notification badges, I try to control the pings and dings - I discovered on this trip that I still had an unhealthy attachment to my phone.
I caught myself feeling morally obligated to respond right away. To “like” every meme a friend sent so they’d know I cared. To reply to every professional message on LinkedIn promptly. In reality, no one was asking me to do that—it was an internal rule I had set for myself.
But once I surrendered to the fact that I simply could not access my phone, something shifted. My stress and anxiety released. The world kept spinning without me. It wasn’t about ego - it was about obligation. And for the first time in a while, that weight was gone.
Of course, staying connected matters. Relationships and responsibilities don’t disappear. But I don’t need to be tethered to my phone the way I was. Since returning, I’ve taken a small but powerful step: I turned off all lock-screen notifications from Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I’ll still check in when I choose to but without the constant pull of notifications dictating my attention.
During that camping trip, I noticed conversations with my husband increased. We weren’t scrolling side-by-side or filling silence with TV. We had more space to talk, to sit with our thoughts, and just be.
And I can’t help but wonder: How much healthier would I feel if I made more space for this every day?
One of my biggest takeaways from that trip is this: we are in control of how much we let technology run our lives. And I’ve found that less is better than I thought.
