Aside from being deathly ill for most of it, the last week has been really fantastic. I am loving being offline.
The downside is, of course, that I am already out of touch with what's going on in the lives of friends and family; at this point I'm trying to decide how future interneting is going to go, and for the near future I'm considering some kind of halfway thing where I comment on other people's things, but maybe don't post anything of my own.
It's just so nice to ignore the computer for a while. I changed all the settings on my phone so I don't get email or Facebook notifications, and I removed the Facebook app from my home screen so I only go there if there's something specific I want to look at. I don't constantly check my email to see if there are any comments I need to publish or respond to; I don't find myself clicking over to Facebook even when I know I was there just ten minutes ago, just to see if there's something new; I don't need to check all the blogs I comment on to see if there's been an update in the discussion I'm participating in (I don't like to get email notifications whenever there's a new comment). I have to admit that I do still have the immediate thought, whenever I read something interesting, that I need to go post it... but then it's kind of nice to remember that I'm not doing that right now.
Since I was randomly and suddenly very sick when I woke up Friday morning, I spent the weekend watching movies and reading. It's convenient that my entire family is out of town right now--Daniel and Joseph left for BYU, mom went with them, and dad is on a motorcycle road trip, so it's just Mike, Benjamin, and me in the house--because it was easy for me to take over the living room and not worry about cleaning up any of my junk for a while. I barely touched a computer the whole weekend, and the feeling of freedom was kind of amazing. (As Mike said last night, it actually felt like we were on vacation, despite the fact that we still had to work and I was sick.) You wouldn't think there would be pressure from things like blogging and Facebooking, would you? since after all, those are voluntary things. But there is. You'd be surprised.
So the moral of the story is that I am very happy with the current state of things. If you're interested in just doing something different for a little while, try going offline for a week. Everything will still be there when you get back, and in the meantime, you can have a little vacation wherein you realize that you actually do have time to do things like read or watch a movie... You just have to take it from somewhere else.
One thing you can try to make your Facebook more manageable is to hide people from your newsfeed that you aren't really interested in hearing every little update on. It isn't as drastic as un-friending, and you can still look at their profile if you're curious about what's happening in their life. It's been strangely liberating to do this--I didn't have to unfriend people from high school that I'd like to keep in touch with, but I don't have to read every status update they post. Try it--it will make a difference.
ReplyDeleteOh, I did that a long time ago. It IS great. And I think I have probably... three-quarters of my friends hidden. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I miss reading all your thoughts but certainly being offline frees up a lot of time and that ability to be productive at so many other things. I loved it when I was on vacation and hoped I could maintain that but nope, I am back online all the time reading everything. I am glad you're enjoying your new liberating freedoms!
ReplyDeleteWell I for one am mad that this trial is going to well. I always like a little touch of Miri updates and ideas. I don't always comment, but I like to read.
ReplyDeleteHahaha Laura. I am grateful to all of my five regular readers for making your displeasure with my hiatus known--it is a nice feeling. :) I am enjoying said hiatus too much to come back full force just yet, but I think you just might be seeing posts a little more often starting soon.
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