Add New York Times reporter Jenna Wortham to the list of people who’ve discovered (and written about, which seems to be the inevitable step following) the pleasures of disconnecting:

One side effect of living an always-on digital life is the tension, along with the thrill, that can arise from being able to peep into people’s worlds at any moment and comparing their lives with yours. This tension may be inevitable at times, but it’s not inescapable. It’s possible to move beyond the angst that social media can provoke — and to be glad that we’ve done so.

I would add that beyond the good that comes of relieving the tension to live perpetually in “real time” (and there is no more artificial thing than “real time“), that there are constructive things you can do with this time. It’s not just the absence of tweets and updates and the knowledge that someone in your network is running a marathon, or watching a kid graduate, or in line to see Taylor Swift; it’s an opportunity to rediscover a form of time, and a way of experiencing time, that is very different– less frantic and demanding, obviously, but also one that lets you be more thoughtful and attentive.