I think there’s definitely something to this, and it’s insidious because the technological ability to reach someone at any time has built social expectations ac

I think there’s definitely something to this, and it’s insidious because the technological ability to reach someone at any time has built social expectations accordingly. Everyone is reachable all of the time, and the threshold for agitation when someone cannot be reached has never been shorter. I like to spend time in the wilderness, and I’ve thought a lot about this concept of “reachability” and how it contributes to the kind of unique feeling I have when I’m deep in the backcountry. Over time technology has increased the percentage of the day where someone is reachable: home phones became ubiquitous, then answering machines, then cell phones with limited coverage, now cell phones with extremely broad coverage, even on airplanes. Accordingly, most people now assume they can get ahold of you basically whenever. You can try to manage people’s expectations as an individual, but you will be swimming against the current. I think being unreachable sometimes is healthy. Heading into the backcountry with no cell service is an incredibly freeing feeling for me, and one I think many people simply never feel these days.