This is Esther Emery giving a Ted talk in Idaho.

It’s a good one….thoughts on our dependency on the Internet and the power grid….and cell phones….and debit and credit cards….and….anything digital or connected to the electric grid.

There are so many different ways to live…but, at this point in history at least, it’s strange to live “off the grid”.

It’s strange to live without the electronic noise.

It is strange to live without being “connected”.

And, like Esther mentions, living without the distraction of electronic entertainment is a jarring void that, initially, at least, is hard to fill.

I fill my world with electronic distraction.

I know how I roll.

I flip the switch every chance I get….and it’s involuntary.

I can relate to what an addiction is.

In the end, she goes back to limited involvement with the Internet….but with the new awareness of how it feels to change an addiction.

After 6 years of “no internet”, she goes back…and realizes that letting go of the dependency on the internet…and that letting go of the need for validation …was the real lesson.

We continue to exist even if other people don’t notice us.

Esther Emery is Carla Emery’s daughter.

If you don’t know anything about Carla, here’s an Amazon link to a book she wrote back in the ’70’s….. The Encyclopedia of Country Living .

Here’s a link to Esther’s blog: EstherEmery.com/blog

And, finally, here’s a link to her book “What Falls From the Sky”…..