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.
No comments:
Post a Comment