Okay. I'm doing it. I'm actually doing it...

I'm going on vacation.

I'm not headed anywhere particularly exotic, though I am leaving town. The weather won't be tropical and beachy, in fact it may be raining.

But I don't care.

For me, this is all about just doing it. Unplugging.

"Um, Cathy. What's the big deal? People turn off their computers and cell phones all the time."

Really?

In light of the reactions that many gave to my telling them I was extricating myself from the social media power grid for a handful of days you'd think I had told people I was now a card carrying Republican and decided to join the military.

When I refused to tell people where I was going, the reactions became even more amusing.

For the record, I'm not heading off on any clandestine intelligence operation, I'm not going anywhere particularly secret, I more wanted to gauge the reactions of whether actually retaining something private was possible ... but that's another topic for another day.

Today's thought is about that connectedness thing and just how badly bruised the connective tissue between us humans actually is - in some cases as a direct result of that which is supposed to be bringing us closer together.

The thought was percolating nicely as I headed off on my vacation, and then I read the Sunday New York Times (yes, I actually read the physical paper - almost all of it I'm proud to say) and came across Ben Stein's column.

And then it popped into stark relief.

For starters, I love Ben Stein.

To anyone who grew up feeding on the John Hughes films of the mid 1980s Ben Stein's iconic drone of "Bueller? ... Bueller?" punctuated pretty much any lag in response time during a conversation.

Over time I grew to learn that he was not just "that guy" from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but indeed an accomplished writer, comic, actor and someone who also had a solid knack for offering great financial advice.

While whirring away on the elliptical at the hotel gym, Ben Stein caught my attention with his musing on the digital shackles with which we bind ourselves . He speaks of the things we miss - like being human.

As I mentioned last week, the tech industry populous has a knack for creating social media technology but they're not necessary always all that adept in being social - at least not socially tactful. Add to that the fact that there aren't all that many primers giving all those "other" non tech folks guidance on how to use these things properly (which of course is impossible since the people who did the creating don't necessarily have the tools for teaching) and it's no small wonder that the fine mesh net of technology that's scooped us up like so many tuna.

Some people have argued that the technology hasn't changed us all that much. Those people are either in denial, or perhaps they're just too far gone to know the difference.

In any case, that is my test for myself this week - just how connected can I be to the people immediately around me? How connected can I be to the sights and sounds and smells of my here and now?

Obviously I'm writing this while on vacation so I've not wholly severed my connection, but have committed to only writing and perhaps posting some photos from my adventures.

Who knows, maybe I'll have some stories to share.

I tend to think so.