Over the years my ability to concentrate, to focus on one task at a time, has vastly decreased. I am constantly getting distracted, drawn into tangents, and generally scattered. I also spend a vast amount of time staring blankly at my computer screen; randomly surfing between the 20 or 30 sites I visit daily over and over again, vaguely hoping for some new tidbit to be posted,e ven when I know it is highly unlikely.
As a child and young adult I would read for hours at a stretch, uninterrupted by e-mail’s dulcet tones, the latest customer service disaster on Not Always Right, or the compulsion to know -exactly- what the weather is going to be like one hour from now. I would spend hours outdoors or in the gym completely isolated from my gadgets.
Has the internet rotted my brain? I must admit that my obsession with technology is seeming entirely unhealthy at this point in my life. I spend, at the minimum, 10 hours a day on the computer, between work and home, on weekdays, and anywhere from 2-8 hours a day on the weekends, depending on the weather.
Even as I write this blog post, I am e-mailing my partner, responding to a request from a health care professional, making plans to google several topics that have come into my head, and instant messaging.
Have I gotten so good at multitasking that I can no longer focus on one task at a time? If you ask my partners, they might say I don’t multitask so well at all. I can’t talk on the phone and listen to someone trying to interject that is sitting right beside me. I get absorbed in whatever I am doing to the extent that I tune out outside ‘noise’ and often don’t figure out someone is talking to me until they either poke me or raise their voice.
So is concentration really the issue? I seem to be concentrating, but in a scattered, non focused kind of way.
I think the real issue is how I learned to cope with anxiety and stress. I’ve been using computers since they first came out for home use and what started out as a method of writing school papers and playing games to relax, quickly became more and more time and focus intensive as technology evolved. After a while, being on the computer all day started to cause physical stress first, in the form of neck and eye strain, which then led to other forms of anxiety as I became more and more invested in being connected all the time.
Can we say coping strategy Fail?
What I do know is that hours spent in front of a monitor all day leave me with headaches and nausea from eye and neck strain. I don’t end up feeling enriched from the time I spend online anymore, I feel fatigued, distracted, and extremely non productive.
The time I enjoy the most is the time I spend with my loved ones, reading a good book, or being active inside or outside. I have gotten a lot more enjoyment from the time I spend gardening with my girls than the time I spend reading I can haz cheeseburger.
I am not able to connect entirely from the online world, and I wouldn’t want to. But I do want to prioritize how I spend my time better by taking the time I would normally spend re visiting what I’ve already done and using that time to disconnect from the computer, and reconnect with the real life people and things I love so much.
I love books and I’m also a real tech geek, so the idea of e-book readers is both scintilating and off putting. I really like the idea of having one device that can be used to access all of my favourite books. The down side of this is the hefty price tag (10-15 bucks) per e-book. I can’t imagine paying to put the 400 or so paperback and hardcover books I have sitting on my shelves at home on to a reader. Reclaiming the shelf space is a nice idea, but certainly not practical or cost effective.
With all the DRM on e-books, there would most certainly not be a ‘used e-book’ store where people could sell e-books to other people at a discounted price. One of the things I love about physical books, aside from the smell, texture, and physical experience, is that they can migrate from person to person through used book stores, or regifting. I just don’t see that happening with e-books.
The thing that really gets me is that the price of e-books will generally be higher than that of a printed book. I just don’t get that at all. With cheaper publishing costs, we should be saving a relative amount of money, but that doesn’t seem to be in the plans from publishers.
Another issue that came up in a conversation is the universality of e-books to be read on different e-book platforms. Currently there is no common standard, so e-books are generally available on only one platform.
I’ll certainly be waiting to even think about an e-book reader until such time as common standards for e-book readers are in place, e-books are more reasonably priced than their printed counterparts, and DRM is such that an e-book that I buy can be disposed of or transferred in any way I see fit.
I just don’t see that happening any time soon.
Check out Johnathan Coulter. Discovered from Wil Wheaton’s Pax Proclamation.
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads/
Geek music. Utter kewlness!
I am really happy. I feel at peace.
I’m really pleased with my personal growth and where I am at in my life.
I’ve never been busier and never had more going on in my personal life than I have now – and I am blissfully happy.
I’m ok with all permutations of life. I have learned to let go of things that may have caused me anxiety in the past.
I have learned to find joy in the moment.
I am not sure when I did… but it’s there. And in this I have learned not to question, but to accept and be thankful.
Joy. Peace. Thankful. Love.
Life is good.
I am being kept awake by persistent thoughts. My body is screaming at me to go to sleep, but my brain is moving much too fast for my body to catch and sit upon.
Long day tomorrow. Appointments in the morning, work in the evening. The weekend looks pretty damn stellar.
Started a story. Perhaps a coffee table book in the making. We shall see.
Girl.
Hot tub went cloudy overnight and I need to get the water tested.
Sleep. I want.
Happy that Katt is in a decent place and has wonderful people surrounding her.
Permutations of love.
Need more quotes.
Should make my own.
Exam soon.
Camping porn is the top search query for my blog. WTF.
I have 2 weeks off over Christmas. Major glee. Orphans christmas this year.
Muse.
Had someone support my writing many years back. Wasn’t ready to really write then.. perhaps now.
Time slips…
“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.”
-St. Augustine (Captain Corelli’s mandolin)
“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum — of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.” ~ Henry Miller
The above is true, yet I still quail at the thought of releasing my books to hands other than my own. Each book I have kept is precious to me, and to part with them means that the person I am lending them to is more precious to me than my books.
Thankfully, we have libraries. Books are easy to find in this day and age, as is access to all sorts of other information.
*mutters* My precious!
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