I'm beginning this post at 11:07 pm and setting the goal for myself to be done by midnight. Mostly I need to get to bed, but also I need to set an ultimatum for myself to actually make this transition. I feel like Bilbo during his preparations to leave the Shire - I'll just leave the ring in this envelope... Oh wait, it's still in my pocket. - it's too easy to continue just a little longer. But, as of April 28, 2011, I will be taking a one-month break from using my computer.
This idea came to me almost immediately after I finished composing my most recent* post. Here, "almost immediately" means that I finished the post, closed my laptop, laid in bed and before I could slip into unconsciousness I was stumbling out of bed for pen and paper to begin jotting down things I might need to acquire in order to live without a computer. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The idea I had so late at night was this: I just spent several hours writing about how I feel that constant access to information (and constantly taking advantage of that power) distracts me from things more meaningful in life. What if I were to simply deny myself that access? I mean, it's one thing to complain about how I lost 2 hours to YouTube yesterday, but it's been my experience that those acts of complaining do nothing to prevent me from doing the same thing the very next day. So why not impose some restrictions on myself? And, for the sake of curiosity, why not boldly impose those restrictions?
[Yikes, I'd better get on with it!] In short, I decided that it would be a good exercise for me to try going without a computer for some period of time. I arbitrarily began thinking in terms of "one month" because it sounded long but not so long that I would cave in before the end. I briefly entertained the idea of giving up just the internet, but upon thinking further I remembered that some of what I was sick of was the daily routine of waking up, turning on my computer... In fact, it's sad but sometimes I come home and I'm bored - or I just can't think of something I "should" be doing - and I'll turn on my computer. And if nothing on my desktop catches my attention in the first 5 seconds, I'll open a web browser. If in the 5-10 seconds that takes I can't think of any urgent question that needs to be answered via Wikipedia, imdb, etc. I'll start going through my bookmarks: blogs, comics, Facebook, the weather... I'll just click on stuff on autopilot, realize what I've done and then try to "remember" what industrious reason I had for being on this site. It's almost like - as Randall Munroe describes in this post - my mindless surfing is somehow physiological, neurological... neurochemically-rewarding or something. ... No, I needed to quit it all for this truly to be an experiment.
Once it was decided that I should trying giving up the use of my computer, my practical mind quickly turned to just what would need to happen before I quit. What were the "essential" tasks that I routinely used my computer for? Correspondence, getting directions, bookkeeping, shopping, checking the weather forecast to name a few. Wow. Suddenly this seemed like more than I might be ready for. Where would I be without Google Maps? without Amazon.com? I started making a list (hence the midnight scramble for pen and paper) of physical objects I would need. A calculator, a ledger book, phone book, a map... Huh. And the funny thing is, I didn't get much further than that. I did live in a big city. Sure Amazon is cheap and convenient and all, but surely I could find a pair of shoes at the local mall. And I do have a phone (and a mailbox). If people really need to get a hold of me, they can - probably even more quickly by phone than by email. Turns out life without a computer might not be that difficult; we're just to complacent to realize it.
I ordered a calculator, ledger book and map of St. Paul from Amazon.com. Providence sent a phone book to the front doorstep the very next day. I ordered a book of checks from my local credit union and I was set. (I even sent back the map of St. Paul. It was pretty lousy for $8.)
Finally, I had to "make my final preparations." And this is what took over 2 weeks. Every time I would think I might be ready to begin my experiment some pressing thing (plane tickets, apartment searches, ... whatever) would come up and delay me. But as this thing has weighed heavier on my back I've begun to realize that there will never be an end to the things I "need" my computer for. But my hypothesis is that I will slowly discover how little I actually "need" anything so petty as a machine. This morning in a frenzy of internet searches and printing I resolved that today would be the last day. And so it is.
I have 2 more minutes. In closing, I would like to say that I do not want to stop blogging for a month. If anything, I'm hoping to use some of my newfound free time to write more. Though it might be more accurately called "logging"... or something (?). In any event, I haven't figured out the details, but if you want to keep reading what I write, send a SASE to
1012 Burgess Street
Saint Paul, MN 55103
and I'll figure out some way to get what I write on a page for you. My time is up. Good night internets. Good night computer.
* "recent" being 2.5 weeks ago - further testimony to the addictive hold my computer has held on me.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Distractions of Matthew
[9 pm - I turn on my computer, intending to begin writing this post. Instead, I research freehub body compatibility between 7-speed v. 8/9/10-speed cassettes. My question: is it possible to retrofit an older bike with a 7-speed cassette with modern, integrated shift/brake levers, which happen to be only produced for 8/9/10-speed bikes?
...
10 pm - I actually start writing.]
I was going to start writing a lot earlier this evening, but I got distracted. And that's funny because that was going to be the whole point of my post tonight.
Today - a Sunday - I actually slept in, coming off a four-day-straight, open-to-close working streak. Three eleven-hour days, on my feet and dealing with plenty of customers, finished off with a crazy Saturday finale which consisted of everyone and their brother bringing their rusty and dusty (and covered in cat hair???!??) bikes out of their garages after a winter of storage and saying "Could you make this work again?"
[At this point I get distracted by my background music - De La Soul on their album Buhloone Mindstate. They were a pioneering rap group back in the late 80s/early 90s with excellent rhymes. I pause to look up the lyrics to the song Area. Before I get back to blogging, I note that my computer desktop background has been the same for over a week. I search through pictures, finding one of the family cat Hobbes for a suitable background, becoming nostalgic for a number of people of places in the process. Seeing pictures of Pittsburgh remind me that I need to email my former housemates about my stuff being stored there. During the time it takes me to compose an email Brooke emails me a link to a trailer of a movie she thinks looks good. I watch it (Incendies. Looks good.)... return to blogging.]
So like I was saying, prior to today I had been working like a dog. Not to mention that the day before this huge work extravaganza I had spent 8 hours in the bike shop (a nice perk of the job - free use of the shop whenever I'm off the clock) to perform complete overhauls of my and Brooke's bicycles - disassembling, cleaning and re-greasing every moving part, and replacing chains, cables and cable housing.
[Wow, have I really been writing for five whole minutes? Oh yeah, I should finish trying to figure out why I didn't get my last issue of National Geographic before I forget. I go to the website, navigate a million pages, finally find the customer service page - and phew. I did remember to request a replacement issue. Wouldn't want to miss reading about Incas. What was I writing about? I re-read what I've written thus far...]
So, today was relaxing. Still, why do I always feel as though I'm busy. I mean, an eleven hour work day with a 20 minute commute each way is still only 12 hours away from home. I'm awake at least 16 hours a day. Sure I try to spend quality time with Brooke and that takes its share of time, but where does the rest go?
[I get distracted by music again. This time the song Trouble in the Water, still by De La Soul. I look up the lyrics. I pause, remembering the days of middle school - back when music was an event in itself. I would save up and buy an album. Then I would spend - literally - hours listening to the album over and over again, memorizing lyrics, humming the bass line with my deepening voice... Then I remember back to my college saxophone/improvisation instructor telling me that half the secret to playing and feeling jazz was to just sit down and LISTEN to music. Sit down, grab a beer ("or whatever you drink") and put on a good pair of headphones - and just listen. Listen to an album once through for overall form. Is this song AABA? Or ABA? Then listen again, following the soloist. Listen how his solos fit the structure of the song... Hmm. In our culture of iPods and illegally downloading music to the point of music libraries stretching to the realm of tens (hundreds?) of gigabytes, when do we ever actually listen to music. Music is now a second, third or even fourth element of this newly-heralded thing we call 'multi-tasking.' What was I writing about?]
Ah yes, I believe I was about to hint at the thesis of this post: In this modern, technological age people of my generation suffer a good deal of inefficiency as well as loss of quality of life by the constant and nearly infinite accessibility of information. And then I think I was going to flesh that out in another few paragraphs, but oh dear me. Look at the time. I've been "blogging" for nearly an hour already. At least I have my introduction...
But I feel that my lengthy and [What is that word??? <"abnormal"> Hmm... "anomalous"... not sure that was it, but that sounds good.] anomalous intro almost makes my case for itself. The more this idea (that constant access to information might actually be a bad thing) comes up in my mind, the more I become aware of it being manifest in my own life. How many times do I go to check the weather before I ride to work... and then catch up on my favorite webcomics, find a reference to an obscure mathematical principal, only to spend 30 minutes on Wikipedia (but it can't be all bad; I'm educating myself!) thus making myself late for work?. And how many times do I wake up with a refreshing agenda (such as waffles, yoga and an hour of reading), decide to first check my email, get distracted for hours and then realize that I haven't actually done any of the refreshing, life-giving things I was looking forward to?!
One more case study before I begin to wrap up and sign off. The year after I graduated from Goshen I lived with a house full of dudes. Being cheap and resourceful, we signed up for a year of Skype phone service (with a physical internet phone from which we could call long distance numbers, as well as receive calls), facilitating this convenience with an old laptop that sat in our dining room, nearly always turned on, thus enabling our phone. As a byproduct of this setup, we had a computer with internet access already switched on literally inches from every meal shared together. The result was that every (these are going to be exaggerations, for effect) movie discussed was immediately checked out on imdb.com; every debate over factual information was settled via Wikipedia; rumors of new love affairs on campus were verified using the ubiquitous tool Facebook [Google search: "define ubiquitous"... oh good, I did use it correctly]; and of course every new mention of the discovery of an internet meme resulted in looking it up and spending hours being mindlessly entertained. It was fun, and I don't think any of us (myself included) have regrets... but...
But what? Is this bad? Is it bad/wrong to be able to know anything/everything within a few seconds? (Thanks to 3G/4G smartphones, we can now have this convenience anywhere we have cell phone coverage... which is becoming more and more places.) I really don't feel like I can say. On the one hand it's a totally subjective question, and on the other I can see enough benefits and detriments that I don't even have a solid opinion.
The one certain thing is that if I could somehow wean myself entirely of the internet I would make much better progress in my current book...
[An addendum, 4/11/11: This morning I walked over to Brooke's house at 7:30; we were planning to go for a walk then. She was not at her door, so I went inside to find her. She was awake but not yet ready, and I noted her open laptop. "Sorry, I got distracted," she said, "I was trying to figure out how to make my little bamboo plant grow better..."]
...
10 pm - I actually start writing.]
I was going to start writing a lot earlier this evening, but I got distracted. And that's funny because that was going to be the whole point of my post tonight.
Today - a Sunday - I actually slept in, coming off a four-day-straight, open-to-close working streak. Three eleven-hour days, on my feet and dealing with plenty of customers, finished off with a crazy Saturday finale which consisted of everyone and their brother bringing their rusty and dusty (and covered in cat hair???!??) bikes out of their garages after a winter of storage and saying "Could you make this work again?"
[At this point I get distracted by my background music - De La Soul on their album Buhloone Mindstate. They were a pioneering rap group back in the late 80s/early 90s with excellent rhymes. I pause to look up the lyrics to the song Area. Before I get back to blogging, I note that my computer desktop background has been the same for over a week. I search through pictures, finding one of the family cat Hobbes for a suitable background, becoming nostalgic for a number of people of places in the process. Seeing pictures of Pittsburgh remind me that I need to email my former housemates about my stuff being stored there. During the time it takes me to compose an email Brooke emails me a link to a trailer of a movie she thinks looks good. I watch it (Incendies. Looks good.)... return to blogging.]
So like I was saying, prior to today I had been working like a dog. Not to mention that the day before this huge work extravaganza I had spent 8 hours in the bike shop (a nice perk of the job - free use of the shop whenever I'm off the clock) to perform complete overhauls of my and Brooke's bicycles - disassembling, cleaning and re-greasing every moving part, and replacing chains, cables and cable housing.
[Wow, have I really been writing for five whole minutes? Oh yeah, I should finish trying to figure out why I didn't get my last issue of National Geographic before I forget. I go to the website, navigate a million pages, finally find the customer service page - and phew. I did remember to request a replacement issue. Wouldn't want to miss reading about Incas. What was I writing about? I re-read what I've written thus far...]
So, today was relaxing. Still, why do I always feel as though I'm busy. I mean, an eleven hour work day with a 20 minute commute each way is still only 12 hours away from home. I'm awake at least 16 hours a day. Sure I try to spend quality time with Brooke and that takes its share of time, but where does the rest go?
[I get distracted by music again. This time the song Trouble in the Water, still by De La Soul. I look up the lyrics. I pause, remembering the days of middle school - back when music was an event in itself. I would save up and buy an album. Then I would spend - literally - hours listening to the album over and over again, memorizing lyrics, humming the bass line with my deepening voice... Then I remember back to my college saxophone/improvisation instructor telling me that half the secret to playing and feeling jazz was to just sit down and LISTEN to music. Sit down, grab a beer ("or whatever you drink") and put on a good pair of headphones - and just listen. Listen to an album once through for overall form. Is this song AABA? Or ABA? Then listen again, following the soloist. Listen how his solos fit the structure of the song... Hmm. In our culture of iPods and illegally downloading music to the point of music libraries stretching to the realm of tens (hundreds?) of gigabytes, when do we ever actually listen to music. Music is now a second, third or even fourth element of this newly-heralded thing we call 'multi-tasking.' What was I writing about?]
Ah yes, I believe I was about to hint at the thesis of this post: In this modern, technological age people of my generation suffer a good deal of inefficiency as well as loss of quality of life by the constant and nearly infinite accessibility of information. And then I think I was going to flesh that out in another few paragraphs, but oh dear me. Look at the time. I've been "blogging" for nearly an hour already. At least I have my introduction...
But I feel that my lengthy and [What is that word???
One more case study before I begin to wrap up and sign off. The year after I graduated from Goshen I lived with a house full of dudes. Being cheap and resourceful, we signed up for a year of Skype phone service (with a physical internet phone from which we could call long distance numbers, as well as receive calls), facilitating this convenience with an old laptop that sat in our dining room, nearly always turned on, thus enabling our phone. As a byproduct of this setup, we had a computer with internet access already switched on literally inches from every meal shared together. The result was that every (these are going to be exaggerations, for effect) movie discussed was immediately checked out on imdb.com; every debate over factual information was settled via Wikipedia; rumors of new love affairs on campus were verified using the ubiquitous tool Facebook [Google search: "define ubiquitous"... oh good, I did use it correctly]; and of course every new mention of the discovery of an internet meme resulted in looking it up and spending hours being mindlessly entertained. It was fun, and I don't think any of us (myself included) have regrets... but...
But what? Is this bad? Is it bad/wrong to be able to know anything/everything within a few seconds? (Thanks to 3G/4G smartphones, we can now have this convenience anywhere we have cell phone coverage... which is becoming more and more places.) I really don't feel like I can say. On the one hand it's a totally subjective question, and on the other I can see enough benefits and detriments that I don't even have a solid opinion.
The one certain thing is that if I could somehow wean myself entirely of the internet I would make much better progress in my current book...
[An addendum, 4/11/11: This morning I walked over to Brooke's house at 7:30; we were planning to go for a walk then. She was not at her door, so I went inside to find her. She was awake but not yet ready, and I noted her open laptop. "Sorry, I got distracted," she said, "I was trying to figure out how to make my little bamboo plant grow better..."]
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