After a much anticipated wait, the nice folks at Mindspring-oops, it's Earthlink now-installed my DSL line last week. What a change.… faster than a speeding ISDN line, more powerful than a 56k modem, able to download streaming content without interruption: My connection has become Super-Internet!

But having this new wonder of the Internet in my home has not come without a price. Instead of spending hours in front of my computer waiting for streaming media to download, checking e-mail and newsgroups or FTPing information to clients, I find myself with a lot of free time. Instead of twiddling my thumbs or finding mischief to get into, I decided to finally do something to relax.

I'm fairly new to Southern California, so I hopped in the car to see what I could find to do in one day….

  • Early lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Café in Irvine-try the spicy shrimp pizza, yum!
  • A hike along Newport Beach-sunburn number five, but surprisingly my legs are still brilliantly white.
  • An architecture tour among the many houses along the Newport Marina-$2.5 million for that!?
  • The Queen Mary-It's a big boat … yawn.…
  • Drive through downtown L.A.-Downtown L.A. is dead on a Sunday afternoon.
  • L.A. Train Station-what the heck, if you haven't seen a really nice train station, this is worth a look.
  • Hollywood
  • Griffith Park-Home of the Griffith Observatory
  • Up to Pasadena to see the Gamble House-built in 1908 by Greene and Greene and featured in the movie Back to the Future.
  • Finish up the day at the coin-op laundry

All that on a tank of gas, a map and some change. I came home very refreshed.

As I sat there listening to the hum and drone of the wash-u-matic 5600, I realized that while my computer had been connected all day doing whatever tasks I had set for it, I had been disconnected from technology. I had turned off my cell phone and put it away in the glove compartment; there was no computer, fax, pager, e-mail, or television; and, except for the radio to keep me company, I was "away from it all."

I wonder how many others fall into this technology trap? Have we become so dependant on gizmo's and technology that we have forgotten how to get away and relax? When was the last time you went out and did something fun without a tether to the office? New gizmo's (like my DSL line) are supposed to make us more free, not more confined. I remember a time, not too many years ago, when a family would take a week's vacation to destinations unknown and the parents would deal with work when they returned.Today it's cell phones to the ear and PDAs in the pocket.

I know I'm probably going to get e-mails from many saying, "If I don't check my e-mail at Bobby's baseball game or answer my cell phone in the middle of the movie theater, I'm going to miss out on something important," but is that really how you want to spend your life? If that something is so important, people will leave a message or call back.

I love technology, don't get me wrong; I'm probably one of the biggest techno-gotta-have-it-geeks on the planet. It's okay to embrace and use new technology, but you have to be careful that technology doesn't get a strangle hold around your neck.

You owe it to your mental and physical well being to at least relax for an hour or two each day. Ride a bike; take a walk with your s.o.; read a story to your child without interruption; do the laundry at the Laundromat; or go a bit further and spend a day driving in and around L.A…

Let me know what works best for you.

Comment on this editorial on the new Digital Webcasting Forum

Stephen Schleicher Stephen has crossed the country over the last 6 years, going from Kansas to Georgia and now California. Prior to joining Digital Media Online, Stephen ran his own freelance animation business (Thunderhead Productions) providing content for clients in and around Atlanta. As Operations Manager of the Media Production Department of The American InterContinental University in Atlanta, GA, Stephen installed and built out an entire video facility from the ground up. In addition to having a strong traditional and interactive video production background, Stephen has shared his tremendous technical and production knowledge as an instructor at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas and AIU in Atlanta.
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