Tiny Choices
Being in Europe for the past few weeks has forced me to reevaluate my relationship with the Internet. I’m realizing the Internet and I have been spending way too much time together.
I love the Internet, it has been a great companion, it has been there for me through the ups and downs but I need some space!
Since the Internet and I got married (the day I got my first iPhone) things have changed. My attention span has been reduced to reading only 140 characters and viewing images. I hardly pick up books anymore. I don’t read or write as many blog posts as I used to. I get distracted easily. My imagination and creativity have been squished by an overload of information fed to me 24 hours a day in the palm of my hand.
I’m not sure how to make the changes yet but I need my space. The Internet and I are going on a trial separation, we are not totally breaking up but are taking our relationship down a notch. We’re going to be just friends from now on. We will still communicate on a regular basis but not 24/7 like we have been for the last 5 or so years.
Since I have only had very limited access to the Internet while traveling I have literally felt my brain cells waking up and my creativity sparking. I have also been reading more books.
Edited to add this video my Twitter friends @alembic and @iamprettymaxine shared with me after reading this post. The Internet: A Warning from History. Oh the irony of watching this video in Spain, tuning out mi familia, while waiting for the video to buffer…
I second the motion! Travel is a great way to broaden horizons and reclaim perspective as well as the ability to think reflectively. Hope you can keep that balance on your return. It is not easy…
Healthy choice! From the moment I buyed my iPad, I’ve started to spent so much time on the internet I barely put it down until bedtime. But, honestly, having always been a technology disliker ( my friends would be safer using carrier pigeon than sms with me ), after some weeks I noticed I had nothing more to look for on the internet. Now, it is a jump on facebook, one on Twitter, a rush through some blogs, and stop. But, I’m grateful the internet has given me the possibility to know people all over the world, communicate faster, and yes, read more: I love long posts, ebooks, chats with friends and so on. Just, sometimes my hands seems glued to the iPad! I made the resolution not to go around in circles on the internet when I’ve already read all I wanted to. It helped very much.
Good luck on your resolution and, of course, traveling helps a lot on the creativity side!
Elisa – you are funny! Carrier pigeon. 🙂 Sounds like you are managing your social media time very well.
Jody Alyn – Yes travel always inspires me and keeping the balance when daily life returns is the biggest challenge. That is one of the reasons I publicly state my intentions to hopefully somehow keep me in check. 😉
Thanks!