Books that Will Help You Kick Your Tech Dependence | Books & Media - Outside

Four authors on paying attention, savoring silence, getting off the grid, and living peaceably with technology by Heather Hansman, Seattle-based freelance writer.

Photo: R_Tee/iStock

A few weeks back, I was antsy in a way that I couldn’t explain. My head was swimming from a bunch of weeks on the road for work, which turned into both too much and not enough time with people. I was tired no matter how much I slept. Inside all the time. Sucked into the cycle of: delete Instagram, then redownload Instagram and numb brain with other people’s stories of their shiny lives, feel shitty (repeat forever?). 
 
So one Saturday afternoon back home, annoyed with myself and unwilling to submit anyone else to my attitude, I took off for the woods alone. Wine can, sandwich, warm layer, book. South down the Pacific Crest Trail toward a lake I was pretty sure was pretty. At the lake, I set up my tent and shook out my sleeping bag, then sat on a log near the muddy shore and cracked open the can and the book. 
 
Before I even made it through the introduction, I realized I’d chosen well. Sometimes, I think, books show up in your life at exactly the right time...

Rain rolled in over the lake as I slept, and in the morning, I lay in the tent with How to Do Nothing, listening for a break in the storm. For the first time in a long time, I did not anxiously check my phone or internally berate myself for not getting up earlier. I just stayed. 
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Source: Outside