Stop Tweeting and Smell the Roses

In our digital world, we’re used to being plugged in at all times. The Chevrolet SXSW road trippers challenge participants are the ultimate citizens of this digital nation.

The premise of the Chevy Road Trip Challenge is to be wired in at all times, dispatching our experiences via social media minute by minute. As a tech savvy team comprised of digital media professionals, we spend our lives connected – some might say too connected.

We spent the first 2 days of our road trip with heads down, tapping away on our Macs, Tweeting from our smartphones and drowning in a maze of wires, cables, wireless devices, batteries, memory sticks and card readers.

But on Day 3, Eh Team experienced a rolling blackout from all wireless devices for the entire day.  At first, our frustrations mounted as we stared at our blank screens. After all, it was a 5 challenge day! We had a lot to accomplish and felt impotent that we couldn’t connect to the world.

But after a while, the Eh Team began to embrace being off the grid. We raised our eyes from our computer screens and began to truly take in our surrounds.  Our eyes wide open approach for the day lead us on many adventures, from hitting the beautiful geographic site, Wilson’s Arch in Utah, to making new friends at Rudy’s BBQ in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Since our heads weren’t buried in our computers for hours at a time, we got to know one another better and grew closer as a team – and as friends. From losing purses to getting stopped by the cops (again), to wandering through small towns sporting mysterious white jump suites – the hilarious moments, laughter and jokes kept on rolling through the day, right through to our 3am arrival in Clovis, New Mexico.

The Eh Team learned a very valuable lesson during our period un-connectivity: Sometimes it’s important to stop tweeting and smell the roses.