Disconnecting

He's not even sure how long he has been walking, but its been a long time. He pulls out his phone and opens an app that will tell him exactly how long -- he has walked for over an hour, a few kilometers, with the exact coordinates recorded for posterity.

He immediately puts the phone back in his pocket, remembering why he took this walk in the first place.

The device itself is his connection to life, his friends, his digital world, but today, on this walk, its about disconnecting.

He tries to remember a time when he wasn't instantly available. When people didn't know where he was at all times. When he would never have known exactly how long he had been walking.

He thinks about how he is more connected today, but perhaps making fewer connections. How life has become a series of updates and status changes and notifications.

He is torn, he loves the feeling of being informed, but he feels like he misses out now more then ever.

He thinks about his family and what it means to spend quality time with them. He takes pictures and videos to remember, but when he thinks about it, all that does is remove him from the moment. It's just another form of fear of missing out -- its the fear of forgetting.

Is he too busy trying to remember everything, to record it, to save it that he sacrifice the joy of living it?

He thinks of all the concerts he has been to, all the cameras, all the videos -- all the amateurs and their flashes. When he is there, he wants to take that feeling and record it, so you he can relive it -- but he can't. Its a joy that can only be felt in the moment -- So silly to think, that he can preserve something like that.

He has recently observed he uses these devices to escape. But what is he escaping from? Himself? The world? Boredom?. The moment often strikes: waiting in line, riding the train, or during a commercial break. What is he afraid of? Why can't he be left alone with his own thoughts? What is he afraid he will find?