New Beginnings

It's odd to begin a day that will be unplugged by plugging in and telling "the world" about it, but that's what I'm doing. It's almost 6 AM here in Louisiana, my kids are sleeping soundly, I'm doing laundry and about to do dishes, and I'm here to say that today will be a "NO NET" day. There's really no special occasion for this decision, though there is a reason. It's been dawning on me, little by little, that the more time I spend in front of a computer screen, Facebooking, surfing, etc. the less time I have with my kids, my friends, and my family. Duh! Right? Maybe, but it's so subversive, "I'll only go check this one little fact," "I'm just looking up the news," "Just 5 minutes." The problem is that it's the world wide web (and there are a lot of interesting things in this wide world of ours). I love learning new things about how to improve the world, but it seems the more time I devote to "studying" on the net, the less time I have for implimenting any of these changes into reality. The clock now reads 5:54, I'm going to try and wrap this up before 6, and I'll be on my way.

This isn't about the internet being bad. It's an incredibly useful and good tool. I love the internet. This is about putting priorities in line. I'm not one to neglect my children because I'm "farmvilling," in fact, months back I've put a virtual stop to my online gaming (earlier this week, I decided to give it a go after the sabbatical, but found it was no longer appealing). And that's what I'm hoping happens here. I don't want the internet to be were I spend most of my social time. I want to connect with people in reality, and to use the internet only as the tool it was meant to be.

My idea for this is not new at all. I will alot myself 30 minutes a day on the computer (this morning I've used 15 of those writing this). After that 30 minutes are up, I turn the modem off. If I need to know something, I'll call someone, I'll look it up in a book, or maybe I'll just wait for the next day.

So today, rather than watching Hulu movies about social change or reading some article about how to be a good mom, I'm going to take my one little step into that direction. Hopefully that little step will be the start of more and more of them. I hope you all have a great day. Peace.