meirwen_1988 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meirwen_1988) wrote2011-07-18 01:41 pm
meirwen_1988) wrote2011-07-18 01:41 pm
Entry tags:
"An Experiment of Mixed Results" or "Merrily, Merrily, Merrily--Life is But a Dream"
So this weekend I cut back on media.
I listened to CDs in my car (when I was driving), not the radio, or an audiobook, or podcasts.
I turned my work laptop off on Friday, and didn't use a full computer again until Sunday night.
I couldn't quite give up checking Facebook and email entirely, but I limited myself to 10 minutes, twice a day.
Of course, I've been on the computer since 8 AM this morning, not counting time I was having appointments with students or on the phone doing business. So, 5.5 hours straight, pretty much. No wonder I feel so "wired."
I'm not sure what I learned from this, except that de-teching (as opposed to "unplugging") for the weekend was good. I said I'd be gone, gave people ways to contact me if important, and otherwise just backed away. It really cut away a strange level of "urgency" that I wasn't aware was sitting in the background all the time, like the hum from an old refrigerator.
I think I'm going to try again, and maybe even compartmentalize things a little more. It may make me less "available," but I don't think it will unduly compromise my ability to interact with the people I care about, and it may make me a bit less frayed around the edges. There wasn't anything I missed during those 50+ hours that I needed to see "right then," though perhaps if I'd seen Deborah's posts about sex in space earlier I'd have laughed earlier, but I still laughed. That's what matters, right?
And, I hate to say it, but Google+ may soon be my preferred platform for many things. It has better utility than RSS for reading blogs (assuming the writer makes the right connections to their Google+ profile), and because I can segregate in ways FB doesn't allow, I can quickly check on my "family," then read my "following" circle, where most of the "blog-y" things are that are work related, then if I have time I can check on my "friends," or not.
FWIW, I still don't "get" Twitter, though I'm trying. Really. And given an article I just read, I think I'm going to have to set up a student-accessible Twitter account. *sigh*
So, trying to figure out how to navigate in the electronic stream with all its myriad currents, eddies, and undertows.
Part of me really misses rotary phones, Smith-Corona manual typewriters, and getting up to change the channel. But of course it's also true you'll have to "pry [my iPhone] from my cold, dead hand." So, learning to paddle really is my only choice.
As an aside, the picture above is in honor of the dream last night in which at one point I was walking down the street holding hands with Gil Grissom. I have no idea where that came from. And, in case you're interested, he's much shorter in dreams than he is on television. ;-)
I listened to CDs in my car (when I was driving), not the radio, or an audiobook, or podcasts.
I turned my work laptop off on Friday, and didn't use a full computer again until Sunday night.
I couldn't quite give up checking Facebook and email entirely, but I limited myself to 10 minutes, twice a day.
Of course, I've been on the computer since 8 AM this morning, not counting time I was having appointments with students or on the phone doing business. So, 5.5 hours straight, pretty much. No wonder I feel so "wired."
I'm not sure what I learned from this, except that de-teching (as opposed to "unplugging") for the weekend was good. I said I'd be gone, gave people ways to contact me if important, and otherwise just backed away. It really cut away a strange level of "urgency" that I wasn't aware was sitting in the background all the time, like the hum from an old refrigerator.
I think I'm going to try again, and maybe even compartmentalize things a little more. It may make me less "available," but I don't think it will unduly compromise my ability to interact with the people I care about, and it may make me a bit less frayed around the edges. There wasn't anything I missed during those 50+ hours that I needed to see "right then," though perhaps if I'd seen Deborah's posts about sex in space earlier I'd have laughed earlier, but I still laughed. That's what matters, right?
And, I hate to say it, but Google+ may soon be my preferred platform for many things. It has better utility than RSS for reading blogs (assuming the writer makes the right connections to their Google+ profile), and because I can segregate in ways FB doesn't allow, I can quickly check on my "family," then read my "following" circle, where most of the "blog-y" things are that are work related, then if I have time I can check on my "friends," or not.
FWIW, I still don't "get" Twitter, though I'm trying. Really. And given an article I just read, I think I'm going to have to set up a student-accessible Twitter account. *sigh*
So, trying to figure out how to navigate in the electronic stream with all its myriad currents, eddies, and undertows.
Part of me really misses rotary phones, Smith-Corona manual typewriters, and getting up to change the channel. But of course it's also true you'll have to "pry [my iPhone] from my cold, dead hand." So, learning to paddle really is my only choice.
As an aside, the picture above is in honor of the dream last night in which at one point I was walking down the street holding hands with Gil Grissom. I have no idea where that came from. And, in case you're interested, he's much shorter in dreams than he is on television. ;-)
no subject
They cost $60,000!!!!!!!
I had wanted to buy one for Pennsic, but $60,000!!!!
:-)
no subject
THIS.
I remember weekends seeming to be relaxing, full of great expanses of time. Nothing to do unless I wanted to. Now, there is that nagging (definition intended) that there's stuff I should be doing, or at least attending to with my brain, that I'm not, and I'm falling falling falling behind at ever faster rate.
NOT relaxing at all.