So, for my first blog back, what I learned in the nine weeks sans internet.
1. I really depend on the internet. A lot. I can't even believe there was a time in my life when I didn't have constant access. I feel a strange sense of ambivalence about this dependence...while I expected to have guilt over this, it really feels quite normalized to me. Enter thoughtful statement about today's societal addiction on technology here.
2. Google 411 is a beautiful, beautiful gift. We would have been lost many times over the past few months without it.
3. In all actuality, it is relatively easy to get internet access around a city. We are especially fortunate to live only a few blocks from a public library. It would really be over dramatic to say that I was "sans internet" during the home internet fast, I had plenty of it. (Although I did learn, much to my disappointment, that there is really no internet to steal in our condo complex.)
4. It is very fun to go on internet and coffee shop dates with my husband. We had several of these and they were quite cozy.
5. I feel out of touch with people. There is much catching up to be done.
6. That said, I realized that I am not as out of touch as I expected to be. I simply had to learn to be okay with not replying immediately to emails, which drove my ocd parts a wee bit crazy.
7. Having to make "internet to-do lists" is no fun (i.e. remember to google blueberry muffins at the library because you need a recipe and won't be able to look it up later). I already make enough to-dos in a day.
8. It is healthy and really does feel good to not check my work email right before I go to bed and immediately upon waking up in the morning. Imagine that.
9. Over the past nine weeks I have made 1 1/2 dances, put together a million wine cork trivets, and written a chapter (well, almost, the second draft due in two days, thus the blog writing procrastination). Paul has recorded (excuse me, "tracked") an entire music record that he is mixing as I write this. And it feels darn good to accomplish something more tangible than status updates.
10. Despite all the growth, I hope to never take my husband up on this challenge again. There's only so much stretching a person can handle, especially in the middle of a depressing Wisconsin winter. I'm pleased to be back online, to say the least.
So, we're baaaaack. See you around the blogosphere.
2 comments:
YAAAAAAY!
I am totally dependent on the internet as well. At home, I need it for recipes, maps/directions, and the pizza place's phone number. :) And when you think of it... isn't it more environmentally friendly to set up the laptop in the kitchen, rather than printing out a recipe, and using google instead of the yellow pages? That's how I like to think of it.
And I purposefully didn't learn the "web access" address for my work email so I can't check it at home. Hooray!
So glad to have you back more often. Though the coffee shop/wifi date sounds like fun! Perhaps I can convince Ben to have one even though we have internet at home. Ha!
In the last month before I left Minnesota, I checked my work email just before bed one night and found a particularly nasty missive from a church member waiting for me. Total blindside. I was so mad that I blogged angry - BIG mistake.
Work email doesn't get opened after 8:00 in our house anymore. If it's an emergency, they've got our phone number, and otherwise it can wait.
Good for you on the fast, but I'm glad you're back!
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