The Summer of Unplug

I don’t know about you—but I’m sick of screens. As much as they held us together during the plague—they’ve also driven us apart.

I don’t know about you—but I’m sick of screens. As much as they held us together during the plague—they’ve also driven us apart. Somewhere during the Trump years and the election madness and fighting about masks, we forgot how to be humans IRL.

So this summer, I’m unplugging. You should too.

Turn off cable news (all 50,000 of you who still watch it). Get offline and plant your feet firmly in real life. I recognize there is a certain amount of time we all need to spend online — but for me it’s the pointless scrolling that I find the most wasteful (and shameful). During the pandemic I could justify it. “What else am I going to do? Bake another loaf of bread?” But now scrolling is not only robbing me of happiness and peace of mind—it’s robbing me of time. Time I’ll never get back. Time I was always aware that I was squandering but now somehow, as the pandemic recedes into the rear-view mirror, it seems all the more insane for me to be wasting it online.

The pandemic highlighted exactly what makes life precious. Our freedoms. Our health. Our families and community. Human connection. All the simple things we take for granted—going to the beach, taking in an exhibit at a museum, visiting family—are precious. Dancing. Live music. Eating out. Here in California, that was all shut down. Even our beaches were (insanely and stupidly) off limits for months.

So for the next 10 weeks, I’m going to spend as much time away from screens as I can and as much time recovering what it’s like to live with a sense of awe and wonder, instead of a perpetual sense of doom and gloom.

Not everyone has the luxury of logging out for work. Lord knows I certainly don’t. I’ll still have to use the internet to promote my content. But as much as I can, I’m engaging with the world and I’m putting myself in my own version of Adult Summer Camp.

Here are 10 things I’m committing to doing in the coming weeks:

1. Plant something
2. Read as many books as possible
3. Go to museums, movies, concerts, gardens
4. Build something—even if it’s putting together a piece of furniture
5. Learn to identify at least 10 different plants in my neighborhood
6. Volunteer
7. Go to the beach as much as possible—go kayaking at least once
8. Travel
9. Eat out
10. Paint something

In order to hold myself accountable I’ll be sharing my adventure, my book recommendations, my experiences, my paintings and some of the things I’ve learned with you in each week’s newsletter. I’d love to hear your suggestions or plans for your own Adult Summer Camp. And I hope you’ll join me in throwing off the yokes of our tech overlords, even if only for the summer.

With love,
Bridget

Note: This is from my other weekly newsletter which aggregates all the content I create and appearances I do. Because I don’t want my Substack to be a promotional email, you can subscribe to that newsletter HERE.