In the blogosphere lately, there has been a lot of self-existential questioning. And that goes for me, as well. Fortunately, I will be leaving the laptop home - all those years of traveling for business completely burnt me out on dragging laptops across the country - I do not even take a computer to BlogHer. Yes, I will be on Twitter while I am gone. However, it takes 2 seconds to send a text message from my phone. Eh. Big deal. I am looking forward to my Internet-free days of virtual self-reflection.
On that note, I leave you with an excellent article on why moms, in particular, are susceptible to Internet addiction:
If it were just an escape that moms were looking for, however, they could flip on the TV or pick up a book. But according to a recent Babytalk.com poll, more than double the number of moms choose the computer over books or the boob tube during their babies' naps, showing that they're looking for something more than an escape: connection, yes, but also a way to express themselves.
That is me. That is me.
I know that I spend too much time online. We are out and about every day, we rarely spend an entire day at home. When I do get home, I feel that need to find out what has been happening in the world, not just with blogging, but also with a variety of new sites that I follow. Not including some things that I work on for FoodieBytes.com. While I do not feel that Team Chaos are getting the short end of my Attention Stick, other aspects of my life are often ignored - things I truly enjoy- reading and knitting while I watch television. Furthermore, I have an incredible amount of household projects which are growing mold.
I will be using this trip to evaluate this and will coming back with specific steps for decreasing my online time.
Talk amongst yourselves.
7 comments:
I have also stopped taking a laptop with me while traveling. I also had to stop taking my iPhone to my bed, I just felt like I was missing out on the life in front of my eyes. Spending too much time planning or researching about a project than doing.
Hence the reason my blog has gone down the proverbial shitter and I really only read a few blogs out there these days.
Of course I still read about more books than read them but I'm working on it.
The two different times I was home with my son I was absolutely and utterly addicted to the internet. Now I am much better about it because I work full time and only get a few hours a day with my family. Winter I'm online more than summer. This weekend will be gorgeous, so I expect to be on very little. The iPhone helps? I think? Because when I have work downtime I can check blogs instead of using family time. I'm sure my son would still tell you I'm on the computer too much.
But you know what, besides work and family there is nothing else that I do. I don't go out with friends, I don't go to the movies, I don't recreationally shop, I don't work out, I don't watch tv, I don't play video games...
I was pretty addicted to the internet for a while but not so much any more. I'm just too busy. I post around once a month now, I hardly ever Twitter or Plurk at all and I occasionally check Facebook. I am still hooked on Good Reads but I consider that more of my reading obsession than internet obsession. My Google Reader has over 100 blogs but I probably only read 20 of them and mark the rest as read. I should just delete them but can't be bothered.
Re: 3 year old space, time continuum - we explain days by how many times you must sleep before the big event occurs (i.e "After you sleep three times, then we will go on the airplane!"). This has worked really well for Duncan. We also used a calendar as a sticker chart for potty training and found that it had the added benefit of helping him understand when big events would happen.
we learned this a couple times on our little trip this past weekend the hard way....."wanna go zoo" repeat 50,000 times!!!
For a long time we had a laptop plugged in in the living room. It was really easy to log on for a few minutes while the munchkin was occupying herself with something. I recently moved it downstairs and it has definitely helped control the time that I spend online while at home - out of sight out of mind. The internet is a comforting method of escapism and quasi-connecting with people, but I agree that I've let things like knitting go down to the tube. The most important thing is to make sure to do things that make you happy. Keep up the good work!
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