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What would you miss most in your one year without technology?
- Social Media — need. instant. gratification.
- Texting — because how else would I talk to people...?
- GPS — is MapQuest even a thing anymore?
- iPod — la la la...
The mom of three got a feel for what's to come this summer when one of her 16-month old twin boys dropped her phone into a water table.
She couldn't text anyone. She couldn't Google anything. She couldn't plug anything into her phone's navigation system.
Beginning Sept. 19, Tirri will be without iPhone — and more. But this time, it's going to last a little longer.
"I don’t want to be the people on the bench while the sun is setting staring at their phone," she said.
"I don’t want to be so concerned about the perfect photo that I miss the special moment."
Tirri has had the idea for awhile.
She says her "horrible track record" with her phone, which has been broken for days and through the washing machine several times, is what's encouraged her to bring her tech-free year to fruition.
"The first day is always difficult but the second and third days are kind of nice," she said. "Being a little absent from the main scene is enjoyable."
Tirri has come to rely on the many conveniences of the internet. Online grocery shopping and delivery, her phone's navigation system and a direct line to her mother and best friends are all things she's come to take for granted.
So, she's taking it way back. Think MapQuest, if that.
"I used to have a pretty good sense of direction," said Tirri, who had the route from her parents' house in Cape Cod to her now-husband's in New Jersey memorized.
"That's completely gone."
Tirri's iPhone has become her camera, her radio and her personal shopper, too.
She's looking forward to trading it in again for a camera — and a polaroid if she wants instant gratification — and a vinyl record player.
Tirri will be documenting her journey on her laptop but will remain disconnected from the internet. Each day, she'll write down things she would've looked up on Google.
TheSkimm, wine delivery and Instagram filters will be missed the most, she said.
But Tirri knows ultimately, she's disconnecting to reconnect.
"I want to be a little bit more organic in my upbringing with my kids," she said. "So send me a carrier pigeon, write me a letter.
"I'll look out for smoke signals or, call me, she said. "Like we use to do in the 1990s."
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