Back at last

[resonant]

Wow, that was a long time to go without a computer. My laptop has a new logicboard, and they've added some stiffening to the keyboard half, so it feels subtly different. If I ever had my doubts about whether AppleCare was worth the money, I am now convinced.

I'm so very happy to be in touch with my imaginary friends again!

This period of computerlessness convinced me of some unsettling things about the computer, though:



- It has trained me to have a short attention span. On the computer, I rarely do one thing for any extended period of time. I'm composing an e-mail and reading my flist and playing a game, switching from window to window every thirty seconds.

When I sit down to read a book, it always takes me a while to reset my internal clock and not be looking up every page.

- Without meaning to, I'm anesthetizing myself with it. As long as I have a computer, I never have to sit and think about anything. I can use it to spend hours without ever putting two thoughts together; there's always a new thought to knock the old thought out of my head.

We've been facing some life-phase problems -- career changes for us, the kidlet needing something different from school, the desire to move to another town -- and mostly the problems have just been sitting there. But I handed my computer to Rod the Mac guy, and within 24 hours, I had a temporary solution to the school problem, a way to visualize the next three years in both our professional lives, and a plan to solve some of our financial problems. It was like my brain had gone to sleep and was just waking up.

You will notice, however, that I'm discussing this on the computer.

I don't have any solutions, but it's becoming obvious to me that I need to do something to create a proper place for the computer in my life -- to figure out a way to be able to use it as a tool when it's the best tool for the job, and to use it for fun, without giving it hours and hours of my time every day or allowing myself to train my brain into bad habits with it.

I don't suppose any of y'all have come up with a method that works?

Comments

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

I have to be on the computer a lot for BOTH my jobs now, so my solutions are the following. For normal days when I do have to be online or otherwise working on the computer for many hours, I try to also spend as much time as possible somewhere I can't be on it (the gym, out for a walk, shower/bath, setting a timer to take breaks to stretch my back by lying on the floor in various yoga poses, etc.). Also, there's a button on my laptop which turns the wireless capability on and off, so if I am trying to work on something and don't want the distraction of the Internet, I can just block it.

Then there are completely offline days. Most of the time I don't plan them in advance, but sometimes I just need to take one for my sanity. I just... don't open the computer, and enjoy reading an actual book or taking a nap or something in the time I would otherwise waste online. In fact, I sometimes take a whole day (usually a weekend one, obviously) where I don't speak to another human being at all if I can help it--I need the solitude and silence to recharge. Not as easy to do if you live with your family, of course, but I recommend it for everyone once in a while--I guess that's what retreats are for. I'm not sure if I necessarily come up with solutions to my life problems during that time, but it keeps me from going too crazy.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that when Gene Wolfe has writer's block, he goes on a "word fast" -- no books, no internet, no TV, and as much as possible no conversation. He says it's so unpleasant he usually starts writing again in self-defense!

It's a good idea to actually put some walls between you and the computer -- I get a lot done when I'm in the coffee shop and the computer is at home. (Or en route to and from Apple, as it was all last week.)

When you sit down at the computer to do actual work, do you find it difficult to do the work and leave the toys alone? I wonder if maybe I just have less self-discipline than most people. I'm not distracted from work by nonvirtual toys -- I'm perfectly capable of sitting in a chair and writing while a book sits on the table beside me -- but somehow the virtual kind are much harder to ignore and/or easy to deceive myself about.