A while back I became unhappy with my tendency to check internet things throughout the morning. I wasn’t on social media really, though I’d scroll Twitter here

A while back I became unhappy with my tendency to check internet things throughout the morning. I wasn’t on social media really, though I’d scroll Twitter here and there. I justified it for a while because I wasn’t doom scrolling, but waking up early and then having nothing meaningful to show for my waking hours by 10 or 11 felt grim. I decided to walk instead. I allow myself a podcast, but I often don’t bother with one these days. I just get dressed and go right out the door. I guess it has been since late May, rather than stare at a screen hoping something interesting happens, almost every day (I’ve missed 3) I’ve gotten up and walked for anywhere from 15 to 90 minutes. Usually by 6am. It has been infinitely more gratifying than anything on a screen in the same time frame. The bizarre part is that at one point, my brain was positive I’d get bored or be unsatisfied. Although I had the urge to do more with myself, it was like some addiction in me was insisting the walks would be a waste of time. The number of personal matters I’m much more in tune with because of these mostly short walks is a bit astonishing. I was depriving myself of so many opportunities to think for myself about even mundane parts of my life that actually matter so much. Things I push aside to let myself disappear into a screen. Things I care about, but never seem to matter as much as the next page of results. All manner of little things that weren’t getting the opportunity to appear in my mind’s eye because I was too focused on the firehose of random crap called the internet that I don’t actually care much about. It is a bit of a wake up. If this little bit of time with myself can yield so much, what about with people I care about? Without media present. Instead of time I’d maybe otherwise use a screen. How much more can I get out of this simple practice? As it turns out, it depends a bit on the person but generally the answer has been a lot. One of my sons loves walking with me now — he can chat forever about virtually anything and he really opens up. A friend enjoys it a lot, but struggles with feeling like he has the time to… Kind of like I did at first, too. My wife enjoys it, though she seems to speed walk to turn it into exercise and it becomes sort of a task sometimes, haha. Overall I’d say I agree with the article. Technology generally fails to deliver the same depth, although it succeeds in consuming as much or more time. As I get older, I strive to spend less time with it despite that it’s how I earn a living. For all the marvels it offers it still can’t give me anything like laughing with my son and taking in a sun rise. Or the peace of early morning, before the city is awake when you can hear the birds and rain and the breeze. These things are precious. Twitter is not.