In the course of wondering about turning off cable TV completely, I started thinking about all of the other extraneous inputs into my neural network that seem to constantly knock my brainwaves off kilter - the Internet seems to be a major source of noise in my daily life. So, here is a set of rules that I will try to live up to for one week, and report out. Just to reassure all of my readers (thanks you two), I will still drink plenty of coffee and review a couple of other cafes this coming week - I mean with all that extra time on my hands of not sitting in front of the Internet...
Yes to:
1. Checking email for work, family and friends
No to:
2. FB posts, but allowed to check in on events
3. computer games of any kind
4. News cycle monitoring - I seem hopelessly addicted to posting on HuffPost
5. random browsing
6. advertising
7. online purchases
Yes to:
8. Downloaded books
9. May download and read currently subscribed magazines and the SF Chronicle
10. Poetry of the day type entries - literary in nature only
11. Blog postings on my blogs
12. Use google maps to find places I am going to
13. Reading actual, physical books, magazines and newspapers
14. MLB.com to check baseball
15. Websites directly produced by my place of employment and CTA.org
The idea of reading non-hyperlinked materials is that I might actually read an entire story or article before I feel like clicking somewhere to look up something and get distracted. I feel like I have developed a healthy dose of IADD - Internet Attention Deficit Disorder or even a CADD - Computer Attention Deficit Disorder where my never ending quest for knowledge bring me ever in more contact with links to an ever broadening range of freely associated topics to the point that an article or post is never just an encapsulated piece of information, but often a trigger for 10 or 15 other associations easily found on the web, where the original message is easily deconstructed, disrupted or completely disregarded unless it requires a postal response or a calendar event.
Now that's my brother!! oxoxoxRT :D
ReplyDeleteTo follow up on my experiment... I avoided Huff Post for five days, only read FB twice for events, and did quick service of work related email. But on day six, I was all over Huff Post for at least an hour each day. On the TV front, however, I don't think I managed to sit in front of the television for more than four total hours this past week. Overall, I'll give myself a B for surviving one week on a media diet. Overall, I don't feel bad at all. My blog received some healthy entries, I spent more time with my friends who were visiting here from L.A., and I experimented with Turkish paper marbling mixtures this week three times.
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