Down time

My summer has involved two good traditional get away from it holidays. On the first occasion we stayed in Gites in Brittany and in the second a cottage in Northumberland. What they had in common is no Internet! We had a computer with us but other than backing up pictures from the camera we did not touch it. At home on the otherhand we are a one desktop, three laptops (at least), online games console and wireless broadband sort of family.This means we easily end up watching television with laptops on and connected doing a weird combination of shopping, planning trips, having conversations, watching tv, looking up things to do with what’s on, and even work. I was going to do a post about the opportunities of that sort of life (and I will do next!) but actually the holiday made me see also the advantages of an unconnected life.For example up in Northumberland we went for a trip to Cragside – the first home to be lit by hydroelectric power. To do this we picked up a leaflet, went to the information centre and had a very nice visit there to the grounds. If we had our Internet connection I am sure we would have spent an hour or so the evening before looking up more detailed information, finding alternatives and random distractions, probably for very little gain.So, along with the wonders of connected learning, living and working I think I will make more space for downtime, and leave the computer switched off a bit more!