Drool:  The Amish experiment

Would you consider getting rid of your cell phone for a year? How about your computer?

College student Jake Reilly decided to go 90 days without a cell phone, email or social media. He called it the Amish project – I’m not sure why.

After the 90 days, Reilly reported finding that some relationships with friends weren’t as close as he thought previously. He lost complete contact with others during the time.

In this day and age is it even possible to operate without a computer?

I know I couldn’t do it. Even if I didn’t use Facebook or Twitter, I still need the computer for work. Everything is digital these days, so it would be pretty hard to unplug your life. But, I can get behind going on these social media sites less frequently. Think of all the time you would have if you cut just social media sites out of your daily activity.

What could you cut out of your life?

Shopping at Walmart?

Last week I decided to try to go a month without entering Walmart.

It’s amazing to me how much stuff you can buy at Walmart. I don’t really have anything against the retailer, but it is symbolic of the big, mass-market retailers that dominate our society. I plan to shop locally for the most part, finding locally-owned stores when possible.

I ran into my first problem when trying to buy baby formula. In the past we could easily procure baby formula at Walmart, but I found that at other grocery stores, it can be harder to find. My husband informed me that Food Lion locks up its baby formula, hence why I claimed the chain didn’t offer it for sale. But it was there in the end, just under lock and key.

I ended up ordering formula online and it will be delivered to my door with free shipping. Of course in the scope of making the world a cleaner, better place, I suppose I failed, because the truck that is rushing my formula to my door is contributing greenhouse gases.

In an effort to make things more simple and better for our local economy, I feel I may have made things worse overall because now my business went to another large retailer, which is probably owned by Walmart!

How do you try to improve the world in your daily life? What would you be willing to cut out of your life?