8/4/17 Tethered
High 70s, partly cloudy and the humidity is building again.
They say that "sitting is the new smoking", whoever they are (medical people I think) so I've been trying to be good about getting up and walking around several times during the office day including taking a couple of trips downstairs to walk around the building or if I have the time, the block. In general I try to remember my mobile device but sometimes I don't and it when I'm downstairs and realize I don't have it I get a pang of anxiety. I have a recurring vision of a bomb going off in the area or a plane flying into the building where I work and being completely cut off from being able to communicate with anyone. It's not entirely an unfounded fear given that I work in a highly trafficked and touristy area of New York City but it also occurs to me that it's a fear I never would have had 20 years ago or even ten since I was a late adapter to the smartphone world. Heck, I only got a cellphone around the turn of the 21st century when my parents' health was failing. I grew up in a world where it was acceptable to be out of touch when you weren't at home or at the office. Now it isn't. To be sure, there are a lot of benefits to being consistently reachable but they aren't without the cost of anxiety of being out of touch. First world problems, to be sure.
They say that "sitting is the new smoking", whoever they are (medical people I think) so I've been trying to be good about getting up and walking around several times during the office day including taking a couple of trips downstairs to walk around the building or if I have the time, the block. In general I try to remember my mobile device but sometimes I don't and it when I'm downstairs and realize I don't have it I get a pang of anxiety. I have a recurring vision of a bomb going off in the area or a plane flying into the building where I work and being completely cut off from being able to communicate with anyone. It's not entirely an unfounded fear given that I work in a highly trafficked and touristy area of New York City but it also occurs to me that it's a fear I never would have had 20 years ago or even ten since I was a late adapter to the smartphone world. Heck, I only got a cellphone around the turn of the 21st century when my parents' health was failing. I grew up in a world where it was acceptable to be out of touch when you weren't at home or at the office. Now it isn't. To be sure, there are a lot of benefits to being consistently reachable but they aren't without the cost of anxiety of being out of touch. First world problems, to be sure.
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