Us versus Internet

You might have noticed that Heidi and I have not been writing as much. Let me explain. Since we have lived in this apartment when we opened our laptops, presto, connected to the Internet. Then our neighbors moved.

So now we have to limit our Internet use to the library, Panera, Starbuck’s, Heidi’s school, or heaven forbid we walk the 100 feet to our clubhouse where we have both PCs and Wi-Fi for free and at our disposal anytime.

But I have learned a few lessons since losing the Internet in our home. For starters, the first few days seemed really long. I had a lot of extra time and I could not figure out why.

Second, I’m a news junkie but you know what, it's nice being away from seeing news progress one excruciating minute at a time.

Finally, I just keep asking myself, do I need or more importantly do I want to be that connected to the world? In other words, am I a better person as a result of having everyday, all day, and immediate access to the Internet?

In a recent article in Entertainment Weekly (another guilty pleasure of mine), Stephen King quoted a study that found the average American adult spends 8.5 hours a day looking at some sort of screen whether it be a cell phone, TV, computer, iPod, etc. This made me do some math in my head – my total is lower but still nothing to be proud of.

But it was King’s final comments that really hit home. “I’m closing in on 62,” he wrote, “I might have 10 productive years left, 20 if I’m lucky…When I ask myself how much of that time I want to spend playing online cribbage or watching cute-kitty videos instead of visiting with my family and friends, goofing with my idiotic dog, or out riding my motorcycle, the answer is not too much.”

“When I read that 8.5 number,” King concluded, “I thought about the old saying ‘No man on his deathbed ever said, I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’ I don’t think any man or woman on his or her deathbed ever wished he or she had spent more time sending IMs or playing online poker, either. But hell, I could be wrong.”

Well, what do you think, too much screen time? Mine is definitely too high but it could be worse – I could be a Facebooker! Yep, I said it. I am yet to join any social networking sites but mostly because Heidi threatens to quit Facebook everyday.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, journalist Elizabeth Bernstein (hey – that was the name of Heidi’s oncologist…good guy) acknowledged that there are a lot of benefits from all of this electronic communication but demurred that there are plenty of concerns as well. “Like many people, I’m experiencing Facebook fatigue,” she wrote, “I’m tired of loved ones…who claim they are too busy to pick up the phone, or even write a decent email, yet spend hours on social-media sites, uploading photos of their children or parties, forwarding inane quizzes.”

It feels nice and bit liberating to not have access to the Internet at freewill. I’ll admit it; it has taken some adjusting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll keep blogging (it’s therapeutic plus it helps me sort out my over active brain), using my Yahoo account, checking out MSNBC and Huffington Post, banking online, browsing through LDS.org and watching shows on Hulu but I like the fact that now I cannot do those things whenever I want to.

Well, how about it? Anyone interested joining Heidi and I? Or who out there is already limiting their Internet use? Now I admit it, our change was not done voluntarily but is there anyone out there that willingly took the Internet out of their home?