LIVING & HEALTH
N eti q u ette
Can’t see the forest for the trees →Tech
fiends face off against nature lovers as tensions rise in cottage country over acceptable levels of connectivity Story Rick Vassallo
cc Robert S Donovan
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n an ad currently on TV, a couple with a dog arrives at a cliff top overlooking the ocean. The woman says, “Wow, I never get tired of looking out at this spectacular view.” She turns to her significant other and he’s miles away, texting on his new device. The camera pans to show her and her loyal canine friend sitting in the long wispy grass, taking in the sights without him. It’s a scene that plays out over and over again: We simultaneously choose to ignore or interrupt our time with lovers, family and friends to check our phones, texts and computers. With summer now here, the conundrum of where to put our finite attention spans moves to the outdoors and cottage country, where cellular towers have sprung up everywhere, like spring crocuses. The expectation to chill can fly in the face of the expectation to stay connected, and never more so than while at someone’s cottage as a guest or on a nature getaway. Howard Barrie is an avid boater. He’s been piloting his yacht cruiser near the islands of Georgian Bay for 23 years. Lately he’s been noticing that a number of his guests don’t know how to be on a boat for any length of time. Sometimes at his insistence, sometimes at theirs, he’s forced to drop guests off at a bus or train station because they are out of sorts in such a remote and natural setting. “Exposed to the raw living conditions of boating, the few amenities, the restrictions of even going for a walk… can be unanticipated,” says Barrie. “Everything becomes a protracted exercise in order to get any-
thing done. For some, they can’t wrap their minds around this. “It’s also the challenge of entertaining yourself,” says Barrie, in his late 50s. “Some people just have no affinity for those old-school attributes like conversation, cultivated quiet time, card games, joke telling and story telling. Without technology at hand, for some it can be too much of an adjustment.” Barrie says technology has also
“Nature can make you feel very small and very insignificant. It becomes a much smaller world without technology, like in some way you don’t exist.”
→ hang up Try tuning into the natural world, no device necessary.
changed boating in and around Georgian Bay. “Ten years ago, only the people with printed charts could navigate the waterways. Now you don’t have to have the navigational skills, you can simply plot the course on a GPS ahead of time and your boat will get you there.” Pat Morel, a guide at White Squall paddling centre in Georgian Bay, sees GPS technology as just one more tech distraction. “There are people with their GPSs trying to map the whole trip even though they’ve already hired guides for that purpose. “They’re attempting to understand where they are with their maps, as if the experience in nature is not itself enough.” She pauses, then adds emphatically, “It’s an addiction.”
Morel, who doesn’t own a cell phone, says it’s “sad… if you can’t disconnect for five days, without news, without phones, without texting.” She has a theory on why wilderness getaways bring out the worst in tech fiends. “Nature can make you feel very small and very insignificant. It becomes a much smaller world without technology, like in some way you don’t exist.” Policy at White Squall forbids teenagers and young adults from bringing cell phones on guided trips, but staff can’t make the same demands on adults. “[Guides] carry cell phones and navigational radios but still [other adults] insist on bringing their laptops, stashed in their kayaks in waterproof cases. “In truth, there’s so much going on in nature,” says Morel. “It’s much more interesting than what they’re seeing on their maps, if you can take the time to develop and appreciate what’s going on around you.” Practicing the “power of now,” to contain the mind’s tendency to run off in all directions pulled by technology, is a hard discipline for most of us. It’s the real world, the one that is unmediated by digital technology, that illuminates our spirit and informs us in untold ways. Pay attention to it. You don’t know what you’re missing. At the very least the price of staying connected to city friends may cost you that most coveted of summer connections: An invitation back to the cottage.
RICK VASSALLO Wellness consultant and holistic-based therapist. rickvassallo.com. intorontomag.com
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