Monday, April 4, 2011

Back to the Web

You know what's a good ego check? Deciding to go internet-less for an entire week. You know why? Because no one knew I was gone. I logged into Facebook and my gmail with an expectation of missed invitations, personal messages from friends, and at least one status update mentioning my name. Nada. No self-pity, though, just more proof that it really wasn't hard to go without the web for a week. It was my own experiment in unplugging. And it was a breeze - seriously. But it was also somewhat of an excercise in futility. I found that rather than tackling long gestating projects I had, I simply put off all the things I needed to get done that required the internet (which is pretty much everything) and cheated the one time I couldn't put it off (paying bills, a completely online thing for me now). That was my only cheat though - I really did go without facebook, twitter, email (except for work-related necessities), news websites, entertainment blogs, etc. I think it just made me less informed about the world, my friends and celebrities. So maybe the internet wasn't making me a slothful, procrastinator - I did that all on my own and for years before I had the internet! Regardless, it still feels good to slow down, unplug and talk to the people you're in the same room with every once in a while. Pretty sure my dog appreciated it.