going to eleven

I just downloaded EZ Internet Timer, or something like that. It’s shareware that will lock the internet on a computer after one’s time is up for the day. I set it to two hours. I’m going to use it for a week and see how I do. Then I’m going to put it on the kids’ computer too. Faith, Abaigeal, Gilbert and I will all be on the two-hour (each) internet plan.

I’m writing this blog post in Notepad because I don’t want to use up my browser time with blogging. That means I can’t look stuff up, like the name of the program, or link to its website. That’s different. Also, earlier I was at my folks’ house and I was reluctant to use my time to find a photo that I was going to use for gossip fodder. So that was a plus, I think, right?

It also means that I won’t be idly visiting sites through the day as much. I hope it causes me to avoid sites like Boing Boing and Drudge. They just end up blasting my mind with shiny but cause me stress in the long run, when I realize I have spent the last 30 minutes reading comment threads.

This is the most drastic step I have taken in Internet fasting. I started out with Time Tracker, and it helped but it wasn’t enough. Then i switched to Chrome and let even that minimal reminder go. Gave up message boards (that was such a relief!) Gave up Facebook for Lent, then gave it up entirely. But then replaced it with Twitter. Though Twitter has nothing on Facebook for timesuck, honestly. I think it’s because Twitter, at least through the web interface, is largely my conversations only, whereas Facebook is my conversations and my friends’ conversations.

But all that? Still I was relentlessly clicking refresh. On Livejournal, on Google Reader, on Twitter. And measuring out my life with coffee spoons.

No more, I say!

I have so many things to do in the Real World with Real Things. I want to read more Charlotte Mason - her actual writings, not just what others have written. And I’m falling in love with the Pragmatists again, that uniquely American school of philosophy. Did you guys know I was a philosophy major? Join us and you can make as much as some poets!

So if I want to read those things I have to get the Internets out of my brain. Sustained concentration, I don’t haz it yall. But it will come back!

I am, I can, I ought, I will!