February 18, 2009

  • An anti-social experiment

    As I've mentioned before, things aren't all that rosey in my world right now. Not horrible, but not good, either. But I know a lot of that is a direct result of things I am (or more accurately, am not) doing. The scads and scads of time I spend on the computer probably don't help. I'm not just surfing, but spending hours and hours a day playing little mindless games. Sadly, the mindlessness of the games allows me to spend a little too much time thinking, and I don't know, maybe a bit of niggling guilt that I should be doing other things with my time tends to turn those thoughts to unpleasant topics. Nothing sociopathic or anything, but things I really can't do anything to change, or I'll start having hypothetical conversations in my head that end up being ten times worse than a conversation that would actually take place.

    Monday evening, I decided to try a bit of an experiment. Could I go a day without getting on the computer? Sure, I've gone days without getting on a computer before, but usually that only happens when I'm on a trip, not when I'm sitting at home with nothing better to do.

    So all day yesterday, the laptop sat unopened and unplugged. The desktop wasn't touched.

    I survived.

    Sure, I had my moments when I was tempted to grab the computer, but I resisted. At one point a recruiter I've been talking to called and wanted some writing samples sent to her, but I reminded her that I'd already given her a CD with them on it, which she still had. Besides, I just told her I wasn't at my computer that day, but I could get some to her today if she still needed me to.

    But really, it wasn't a big deal to leave the computer off. And I had a pretty good day. My mood was better, probably because I got a few things done. Nothing huge, just laundry, changing the sheets, cleaning the few dishes in the kitchen, making a really tasty dinner (if I do say so myself), and getting some little jewelry projects done. Oh, and cleared a few hours off the Tivo. :)

    Nobody even noticed I wasn't online. My Facebook profile didn't explode on me or anything - though I ended up missing the hubbub about the new terms of service. I got no life-changing emails or anything like that - not even any offers to help some poor Nigerian price get hold of his money or anything. The world went on, and I was a bit happier.

    I'm not saying I would ever swear off the computer completely, but maybe I need to start being a bit more aware of the time I do spend with the laptop heating up the tops of my thighs.

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