Monday was a manic day at Belle Copy HQ. We were making final changes to a fabulous new website which was going live this week. We needed to submit two blogs for feedback by the end of the day. And piled in somewhere were two school pick ups, one drop off at football, one drop off at netball and about 5 hours in the car.
And in amongst all that, Belle Copy’s WhatsApps wouldn’t send. So, we did what all technically-advanced beings do. We turned the phone off. And then we turned it on again. And when that didn’t work, we turned it off and on again. And again and again. The heart was racing. The blood pressure increasing. The sweat streaming.
It took about four hours to realise it wasn’t just Belle Copy. It was in fact, the entire world.
And with that realisation, calm descended. Because it’s one thing if it’s just you. But if no one can WhatsApp. And no one can check their Facebook. And no one can post on Instagram. Then so be it.
For the rest of the evening, our phones were eerily quiet. No debates about the status of school lunches on the class groups. No naughty banter with the girls. Our hands habitually reaching for the phone to check social media – but to no avail. For all intents and purposes, the internet was down. And the enforced social media detox felt rejuvenating. At Belle Copy HQ, we talked A LOT. We watched a whole episode of Vigil without picking up our phones. We read books before bed. We basically lived a night in the 20th Century. And it was a beautiful, unifying experience.
We’d love to say that when the alarm went off the following morning and we saw that WhatsApp had returned, Facebook and Insta were back, and the internet was fixed, we reminded ourselves of the previous blissful evening and endeavoured to put the phone away more and just ‘be’.
But safe to say that was NOT Belle Copy’s response. We did a little celebratory jig, hugged the phone and WhatsApp’d groups of friends to say how good it was to be back! Because habits die hard. And because, for all its faults, social media brings people together. It creates communities. It promotes awareness. And it helps us keep in touch. And for us, that’s a win every time.
Comments