Ayn Rand Quote of the Week:
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
-
Unplugging and Boredom
Posted on June 16th, 2009 4 comments
Charlie Gilkey over at Productive Flourishing posted a interesting article entitled A Weekend Unplugged. I highly recommend that you check out his site and especially read that article. I like the way he thinks and many of his articles provoke thought (which is kinda what Tuesday Thoughts is all about).Anyway, the article is an account of how he spent a recent weekend unplugged from his computer and all the other electronic distractions our culture so worships (cell phones, TV, Radio, CD & MP3 players, etc.). As I read the article, I was reminded about a while ago I lost power at the house for close to 48 hours. Apparently some squirrel had gnawed on some critical piece of equipment and blew out a transformer our great and wonderful technicians from PG & E took their sweet time getting things back to normal (We’re PG & E. We’re a government granted monopoly, we don’t have to care.)
I remembered how I felt being disconnected from Internet life and from my other electronic toys. It was not a comfortable feeling. I felt lost, alone, and bored to tears. At least that was what I thought, originally. However, as I continued to sit with nothing but my own thoughts to occupy my mind I realized that what I thought was boredom was, in reality, something else entirely. It was fear.
Now I’m not generally a fearful kind of guy. I’m pretty self-confident. In my past I’ve been intimidated by the best of the best so there’s not much that can frighten me any more. But, as I sat there that day, I began to understand that much of my connection to electronic media was successfully keeping me distracted. It was keeping me from the kind of self-examination that is required if I were to be the best human being that I could be. As I sat there facing thoughts I could no longer escape, I saw that much of my electronic activities were little more than an effective avoidance mechanism.
This, as they say, was not a good thing. So I then and there decided to commit to a minimum of one day a week where I do no electronic activity at all (or at least very little — I still check email and will write an article). Instead I spend the day in rest and self-evaluation. What did I do during the week? Did I accomplish what I set out to accomplish? If not? Why not? Have I dissappointed or hurt anyone this week? If so, what am I going to do about it? Other such disturbing questions. I’ve found this practice to be invaluable for me. It helps me stay focused and allows me to make the minor life-course corrections that serve to keep me on track toward reaching the major goals in my life.
I’d like to encourage you to do the same thing. It doesn’t even have to be an all day thing. Even a few unplugged hours in one lump sum offers good opportunities for personal growth. Besides, taking a break from the electronic world allows you to learn to appreciate the real one. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go for a walk.
Picture by flicker user crazytales562 under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by crazytales562 of the ideas in this post.
4 responses to “Unplugging and Boredom”
-
I think this is one of the reasons I love going camping or up to my non-connected electrically (no phone, internet,TV, but yes power) cabin the mountains. It’s amazing how much reading, writing, thinking, walking, playing I get done without the distractions of a tech world around me.
A walk, even in town, is a beautiful thing~
Rebecca
Rebecca´s last blog ..Google, We Need to Talk, 1st Edition
-
Hi, Rebecca,
Just this last week I was on vacation, and I took a walk out in the sunshine every day. The walks weren’t real long, but it did amaze me how much thinking I got done by not being connected for the half-hour or 45 minutes I was outside away from my computer. When so much of my writing and activities centered around my computer, I forget what life was like before Apple.
I think I need to re-think how much time I spend with “the machine.” Life is too short… -
Hey, thanks for the link. And my last name is Gilkey. :p
It was keeping me from the kind of self-examination that is required if I were to be the best human being that I could be.
This is a powerful insight. In my flailing about unplugged, my realization wasn’t about my own fear, but rather that I knew that the online distractions were an easy way to keep from doing the harder stuff that I needed to be doing.
Searching for meaning and creating it is hard work. There are no clear answers, and it’s something we have to do everyday. Rather than push the Sisyphean rock, I was letting it stay at the bottom of the hill.
The pernicious thing about all this is how we’re not aware of it in the moment. It takes unplugging to see it, yet unplugging makes us nervous, so we don’t see it.
-
Hey Charlie,
I appreciate your comment. It is very true that we often get too distracted by our online activities. Many times too distracted for our own good. I try to participate on Twitter and FriendFeed as often as I can, because I like the people I’m meeting there. Yet there are times when I simply must turn them off, otherwise I don’t get the important work in my life done. This last week, for instance, I went back to my rather highly labor intensive job after a week’s vacation. My body needed extra rest so I could get re-acclimated to the work. So I decided that rest was more important than keeping up with Twitter, even though I missed it a lot. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to take care of yourself. Inner work is some of that stuff you gotta do.
You’re so very right about how we often aren’t even aware of how we have let the important things in life slip by. Unplugging is so important in reminding us that we are more than our electronic impulses.
Thanks also for pointing out your last name. I discovered that shortly after I originally wrote the post. I added it to the post, but I forgot to take out the confession that I didn’t know your last name. I’ve got to get better at editing — especially when I make changes to the original post.
Thanks, again, for your comments. I appreciate them.
Dave
Leave a reply
Subscribe to DAPancost.com
or subscribe by email: