Imagine giving up.
Without the Internet, I feel a little lost. Sad, isn’t it? It’s mostly sad because I’ve been an avid talker of trash toward the Web for years. But when the Internet crashed today at work, I got worried. I had to call a local church. “Where will I get the number?” I thought. (As if phone books don’t exist). How will I do this? How will I do that? I know what you are thinking.
“Did you really need an Internet crash to know you spend too much time online?”
You know, you make a good point.
I recently read a column about a woman’s 30-day e-mail detox. She went without e-mail for 30-days, and I find hope in her story. You know, that life really is better when it isn’t mediated by computers. That I can live without Facebook. That the withdrawals will eventually pass.
As Lent gets closer, I’m soon to decide what I should add to my life for 40 days, and what I should give up. The Internet, altogether, could get me fired. But parts of it are possible, like Facebook. G-chatting at work. Or even G-chatting, period. I mean, imagine with what I could fill my time when I’m not reading 25 random facts about Facebook friends or accidentally browsing pictures of my high school principal’s wife’s cousin’s baby shower. (It happens.) Imagine how much better I’ll feel about life when most of it isn’t spent at a desk. Imagine how much better I’ll feel when I create space in time to do things that don’t make me feel kind of empty.
Imagine.
