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10.15.2010

Thursdays

I used to live like this. Before 1995 I used to have my morning coffee in the living room, not in bed until noon. Sometimes I'd take my coffee out into the garden where I was forced to confront the day: weather, birds, flowers, the garden spider. I felt connected to life although I wasn't aware of what someone was doing and thinking halfway around the world.

The internet connects us to each other and often ourselves, but there's also a disconnect that takes place. We forget how to hold a pen and our penmanship suffers. We don't write newsy, entertaining letters and we don't feel the excitement that comes when a letter arrives, addressed to us from a friend we haven't heard from in a while. We don't sit and just think. Is this technical evolution entirely good for us, I wonder. Is it important for me to know, for example, that one of Ville's cats threw up a hairball on her pillow, that Mary cut her finger cleaning up a broken glass, or that someone else is having a bad hair day?

Like television in the 1950s, the internet has drawn everyone to a tiny screen. The internet is better, at least, because unlike TV, it demands mental action instead of mindless absorption. Television is passive, artfully planting ideas and desires in our subconscious. The internet creates an exchange of ideas with other people. Neither is all good or all bad, but both can be disconcertingly addictive.

So I have decided to disconnect one day a week to be "alone" without a thousand tweets, comments, status messages, replies, and emails. I will spend one full day a week alone with my thoughts. I'll journal, read, write, meditate, rake leaves, garden, water plants, cook. In a word, anything I want to do that doesn't include hundreds of other people.

Yesterday was wonderful. I watered the flowers in the front beds and pots and took pictures of things both inside and outside the house. With the stereo on, I did some things around the house and for a while I just sat in thought. Joel and I raked the leaves from the back step and the drive, talking and laughing and enjoying the perfect weather. Mostly, I just enjoyed the day and, except for the first 30 minutes of the morning, I didn't even miss the internet. In fact, when I finally signed on around 9 or so at night, I was surprised at how little had gone on in my absence. I was faced to realize that most of the time I spend online is spent looking for things to do. Silly me. There's so much to do off line!

This is the first week. We'll see what comes from it over time.

15 comments :

  1. I finally got a new cell phone (I had a really old one, sort of a brick baby). The other day the bill arrived and they charged me for an internet connection I had not asked for and don't want.

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  2. It's hard to remember what it used to be like to not even own a mobile phone - and that for me was only 15 years ago. My kids laugh when I tell them what it was like when I was growing up :)

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  3. I think the thing that irritates me the most regarding the cell phone is the attitude behind it that any and all of us should be at one another's beck-and-call. People actually get irritated, even angry if they can't talk to you instantly, or if they get your voice mail at the other end, instead of you. Why? What is generally SO IMPORTANT that it can't wait a few hours or sometimes only minutes? We have a tendency as human beings to let our technology control us rather than us controlling our technology, and that's why, I think, that a break from it on a regular basis is a good thing--the chance to get away from the constant contact, even the addiction. I think this is a good thing you've started, Steph.

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  4. I still write letters. It's a lost art.

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  5. Merisi: Anything to get our money!

    Loz: I'm not so attached to the phone--I've never like phones, so the mobile phone addiction passed me by. But yeah, kids can't comprehend not having one.

    Lynette: I so agree.

    RW: Major esteem points!

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  6. I like your thinking. It will be interesting to see how your life changes with this one day a week media fast. Have to admit, I was a teeny bit disappointed that you checked in at the end of the day. I was looking forward to learning what 24 hours without any electronic media would be like. Might have to try it myself!

    The best part of the post for me, was the next to the last paragraph, beginning, "Today was wonderful." I can't wait for next week's post.

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  7. Thank you Kathryn, and thanks for stopping by!

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  8. I'm inspired by this idea. I'm going to look over my schedule and choose a day to attempt this. As far as the "is all of this technology changing us" question, give "The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains" a read. It's a little scary!
    Thanks for your participation on my fanpage (www.facebook.com/ExcuseEditor)

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  9. Funny, I've been thinking how doing all my writing on the computer has ruined my penmanship - and I've been taking some time each day, "relearning" how to write with a pen! It's awful, how bad my penmanship had become. I even printed out some of that lined paper we used in elementary school when we were being taught "cursive". I always said the Amish had the right idea on this technology thing: only allow it into your life so far and only to the point where it is serving you, rather than you serving it.

    Very good blog posting, Steph. Have a great weekend!

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  10. Tina, thanks for commenting. I love your blog and read it religiously, even if I don't always comment.

    Kathy, thanks so much. Have a good one yourself.

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  11. What a lovely idea to have a weekly media fast. Sounds like you had a wonerful day. I'll be back to read more.
    You can visit me at www.widowsphere.blogspot.com

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  12. Cell phones are leashes.

    Great idea, Steph! Enjoy it--I know you will.

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  13. What a lovely idea to have a weekly media fast. Sounds like you had a wonerful day. I'll be back to read more.
    You can visit me at www.widowsphere.blogspot.com

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  14. I'm inspired by this idea. I'm going to look over my schedule and choose a day to attempt this. As far as the "is all of this technology changing us" question, give "The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains" a read. It's a little scary!
    Thanks for your participation on my fanpage (www.facebook.com/ExcuseEditor)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Funny, I've been thinking how doing all my writing on the computer has ruined my penmanship - and I've been taking some time each day, "relearning" how to write with a pen! It's awful, how bad my penmanship had become. I even printed out some of that lined paper we used in elementary school when we were being taught "cursive". I always said the Amish had the right idea on this technology thing: only allow it into your life so far and only to the point where it is serving you, rather than you serving it.

    Very good blog posting, Steph. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete

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