internet

On Breaking Up With My Phone

Life

On a whim I picked up the book “How To Break Up With Your Phone.” It was on the new book shelf at the library and I thought I’d thumb through it just for laughs. It turns out, the book is really good.  As I read through the first half of the book I slowly realized that I am, indeed, addicted to my phone (as most everyone probably is these days). I decided I’d give the author’s 30 day plan to “break up with your phone” a try. Let’s just call it an experiment. To see what happens. To see how it affects my mental state and general mood.

I am on day 8 today and I already feel like a new person.

About 3 days in she instructs her readers to delete all social media from the phone. Don’t even think twice, just delete.

You know how when you pull a band-aid off and you know it’s best to just yank it off as fast as you can and it stings badly for a few moments but then it’s all fine? That’s how it felt the first day I deleted everything. I felt this moment of panic and then a sense of emptiness and then I realized that I would be OK. Deleting social media from my phone didn’t kill me.

She doesn’t say to, necessarily, delete social media from your life. Just delete it from you phone. So I’ve been checking in on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter a couple of times a day from my PC.

I also downloaded an app that monitors how much time I spend on my phone and can figure out how many minutes/hours I’ve spent on specific apps. The app is called Moment for those interested. The day I installed the app it stated I had spent 4 hours on my phone that day! And that was just from “momentarily” checking social media to fill in the empty spaces during the day. Four hours!

So now I have a 4 hour void to fill every day. It’s kind of nice! To start, I’ve been catching up on things I’ve neglected, like editing photos, and blogging. I actually read for an hour everyday last week. I organized my closet and books yesterday.

But I think the best thing so far is that I feel so much better mentally! As the book states, when we scroll through our endless feeds we experience a plethora of emotions as we see posts from different people. As a one of those Highly Sensitive types, this was making me insane. Today I feel less insane.

 

An imagined conversation with my fake grandchild in the future

Random

There was once this place called “the real world” where, when you looked up, you would see clouds in a blue sky. Or a vast sea of stars. There was a sea. There were beaches and you could walk barefoot on those beaches and feel the warmth of the sand between your toes. There were forests and trees and brooks and rivers. And mountains. And flowers and bees. And the sound of bees buzzing a beautiful symphony at dusk.

Plinky Prompt: Before the Internet

Writing

My old Mac SE/30

Yes, I do remember the days before I got the internet at home. I am actually THAT old! I got the internet in my home when I was thirty. Before that I had to access it at school.

Before Internet I spent a lot of time with friends. I went out for coffee, I went out dancing, I went to shows. I was a very social person. I always liked to have something lined up almost every night of the week. This was before I met Raf. But even then, when we were dating we would go out every night. When I wasn't going out I watched television or read or played computer games on my Mac SE.

The thing that I notice about my life now is that I am much lazier about my social interactions. It is super easy to interact with other humans online so that is what I do. I think this has become commonplace. It's sad, frankly. I miss the in-person socializing that I used to do. Online socializing has caused us to create facades that are hard to read. When you meet someone in person you see the real person. I miss that.

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Bloggers’ Internet obsession

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Visualization of the various routes through a ...

Image via Wikipedia

MercuryNews.com | 02/22/2005 | Bloggers’ Internet obsession

For some, keeping a blog subtly colors every aspect of life. Renee Blodgett carries a digital camera wherever she goes to capture images for Down the Avenue (www.downtheavenue.com), which mixes notes on San Francisco, technology and poetry. She walked into a cafe recently and caught herself paying attention to the colors, sounds and people. “I was thinking how I could turn it into a post,” said Blodgett, who is in her mid-30s. “Before, I’d just sit down, have my bowl of soup and zone out.”

Yet Blodgett worries whether the blog will make her less social. “Will I become more engaged with my laptop, more engaged with my blog than I am with people?” she said.

Here is an interesting article in the merc. about blogging. The issues raised are some of the things I have thought about. I have mixed feelings about blogging lately. On the one hand, it does make you see the world around you a little bit more critically. Like when I was trying to take a picture a day…I was looking at things around me in terms of “what would make a good photograph.” It puts you in “right brain” mode, which I always like.

On the other hand blogging has also been a thorn in my side. You put yourself out there when you blog, and when a drive-by troll comes in and makes a comment that is inciteful it is upsetting. Not that that’s happened in awhile, but nonetheless.

I guess there is good and bad with everything.