*WARNING*
If you are reading this, I am stuck in 1971.
I have no access to the internet, no email, no portable phone device.
This web page was published prior to my travels, and will remain static until after I return Jan. 1, 2027.
Welcome to my social experiment!
Objective:
Welcome to 1971.
The objective of this social experiment is to live in the current year —2026— as if it were 1971.
Definition:
Boring Bettie will live daily life as if it was the year 1971.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, through Dec. 31, Bettie will live as if she were the year 1971.
Modern technology does not exist. No smart phones, no apps, no email, no internet, no streaming services. All resources, technology, and even simple household appliances and products, will be used in accordance with those available at the time. If it did not exist in 1971, it does not exist for Bettie this current year.
Purpose:
Slowing down. Simplification. Mindfulness. Social connection.
Bettie has become too busy and too distracted.
I bet you are much like me. I would wake first thing in the morning and grab the electronic device from my night stand. I could not stand in line at the grocery store without scrolling her screen. I would lie on the beach, or hike in the forest and my mind would be scouring and planning for the perfect social media picture. I would sit in the park, or in the very same room as my family, and doomscroll. Meanwhile, I’m telling everyone I know how fast the time goes. I am so busy, yet still have time to answer all my text messages, emails, read articles, watch videos, and check my social media. Something is not quite right.
I am chaotically busy. As a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, I am expected to be “on” for all things all the time. And I don’t even have an employer that requires even more of my time.
This is self-inflicted. We choose to do this to ourselves. I did. Bettie ain’t got time for that any more.
Time is my currency. And now I am on a budget. I am saving minutes and moments in my own personal savings account.
Bettie is taking back her micro-moments!
Why 1971?
As I was discussing these plans with some friends, one friend remarked, “You’re totally going 1985.” This resonated with me. Time travel could perfectly describe what minimalism I was trying to experience. I chose 1971. This is the year that my mother and her sister would have been the same ages as my two children. I would get to experience raising teens and kids, and keeping a home at that time.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
-Henry David Thoreau
The Plan:
- Total immersion. The purpose of this experiment is to put away the digital distractions in order to be intentionally aware and fully engaged in each moment — for better or for worse. The modern word is mindfulness. I will simply be living life. I will embrace the boring and unentertaining. This will be the most reflective part of the experiment, much like a digital Walden’s Pond.
- This life will be encountered in real-time. I want to personally experience the frustrations of losing modern conveniences, and find the joys of doing things differently.
- Choose purposeful activities. I will experience life as full as possible — kids sports, camping trips, car repair, gross recipes from old cookbooks, etc. I will purposefully seek out activities in which to engage, as opposed to just ignoring. We are planning family vacations in the both the Spring and the Fall, including international travel.
- Connect with real people in my real community. I will talk to strangers. I will interact purposefully with those in my community that I meet everyday.
- Consume media of 1971. I will learn of the news topics and societal happenings of the time. This is the time of Vietnam and Nixon, I would like to personally receive the information like it was during these days.
- I expect to need much help. Customer service will be my lifeline as I navigate things in-person. I will need to constantly speak with representatives and people behind the counter. I will need forms printed and forms submitted. My community will be my tribe, and I am expecting to learn much from them.
- Encounter the real feelings of my American community and society. As a former journalist, I want to dig into the minds and hearts of those in my community and hear their stories.
- Make many in-the-moment decisions. In the grocery store, for example, as certain commodities may not have been available in 1971 (I’m looking at you coconut milk).
Stay tuned until 2027 I will see you when I return from my time travels, on or around January 2027. Cheers!
