Back Online

The internet is a strange thing, or rather human my behaviour regarding the internet is a strange thing.

I thought that I spend a lot of time on the internet and that a lot of my day’s activities revolve around the net – ie. checking email and responding to email; going thru’ my RSS Feeds and responding to various posts; searching for information on issues that were raised on blogs or in mails; online banking and personal things like family budgets, menu planning, school scheduling etc.  On an average day, I am online for at least 4 hours and if I’m not pressed to be doing other things, I can even manage 7 hours.  In this regard, I thought I would go out of my mind with boredom when our internet lines went down over a week ago.  Can you imagine my surprise when my days were just as busy and full without the net as they were when I had 24 hour online access.  I did different things – like cooking (which isn’t my favourite past time), I spent a lot of time doing school work with my children and I did lots of baking (which is my favourite past time).  I had breakfast with a friend and went out for dinner with my husband. Unfortunately, I didn’t do more running or gym work.

I had thought that I would miss the happenings in the lives of my ‘blog-friends’, but it turns out I didn’t (no offence to those whose blogs I follow).  I didn’t miss any important information that was sent by email - important interesting relevant personal stuff was communicated on the phone and the email was still there a week later.  Interesting to notice that when my inbox was so full, I cleared thru’ it a lot quicker than I do on a daily basis, no lingering or loitering when the goal is to clear the inbox. 

I am now much clearer on the purpose of the internet in my life.  It can be useful, informative and a way to connect and/or keep connected .  It can also creep into your my life and silently become all that you do.  I am now committed to not going down that road again and will only spend a max of 3 hours a day online.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, I hope it gives you some food for thought.