Let’s talk about the elephant in the room if you live in Alabama. No phones in school this year. Wait. What? I know. I know. As we all collectively clutched our pearls and thought for sure our children would never be ok without them…they in fact…are. Word on the street is they are thriving.

We are a week into the school year here.  I have been chatting with students and teachers as well as just keeping my finger on the pulse of what “folks are saying”.  Largely through FB community groups.  (Have y’all ever been on one of those things?  Whew.  Tread carefully.  Things are WILD in there.). But I digress.  When it was first announced that phones would not be allowed in schools, there was concern.  From students?   One would think they would have the biggest issue with their constant communication device taken away for ….holds breath…at least 6 hours a day.  That has not been the case.  Here are a few responses I have gotten when chatting with students “I am SO happy we can not have them!”  “I feel better now that everyone is not on them.” “I hope it stays this way.” “It has been AMAZING!” 

What I wasn’t prepared for was after 30 days off-screen, re-entry felt like a complete attack to my senses in the most rude way possible.  The time off allowed me to re-connect with what feels right and good and important in life.  As much as I lecture on this, I discovered I have slowly fallen into the screen connection trap…which led to my  feelings of imbalance and frustration. And re-entry was threatening my new sense of peace. Which begged the question, how the hell do I go back to a job that I love without immersing myself in what caused all of this crap in the first place? I gave myself May 1 as a re-entry date. The closer the date crept, I begin to feel increasingly anxious. Frustrated. Could I just….quit? Maybe I would just continue to do coaching only and wholly remove myself from social media forever. As Brene Brown has said in her recent podcast series “We are not socially, biologically, cognitively and spiritually wired for some of the shit going down right now.” I felt this statement in my bones. And my bones were afraid to get back on that wheel.

Why do we not want an algorithm feeding us only the same stuff? It provides an insanely narrow view of the world. It is restrictive, repetitive… at best monotonous…and at worst narrow-minded. We should desire diversity and new perspectives. A singular algorithmic diet limits our understanding and growth. It confines us to a small bubble that prevents us from exploring the complexities of the world. The narrow lens distorts reality, and hinders our ability to be able to embrace differences and variety. In all things.