Stop the Insanity!

The internet... it's sucking me in!!

Or as Ted likes to say after a particularly long browsing session, "I have reached the end of the internet."

I've been thinking lately that I need a technology break. Don't we all?

Increasingly, I'm seeing college students walking to class heads down, texting their friends. Rarely do I pass a younger person walking down the street who isn't wearing ear buds. At the gym, everyone's plugged in to their phones. Last week, while running on the treadmill, the woman running next to me actually picked up her ringing phone, spread her legs to the non-moving sides of the treadmill, and proceeded to have a conversation mid-workout, the treadmill belt still rotating full-speed underneath her.

What is happening here? Can't we unplug for even one 30-minute workout?

And I'm not just talking about other people. I'm guilty, too. Working part-time means I spend a lot of time at home. Sometimes I'm working on lesson plans, grading papers, cleaning house, or whatever. But a lot of the time I find myself sucked into the internet.

It starts innocently enough, checking email, writing a blog post.

But that inevitably leads to clicking on the latest sale ad from Boden and perusing their new winter styles; reading someone else's blog, and then someone else's, and then someone else's... checking the weather; looking to see what everyone's doing on Facebook; listening to new music tracks on the iTunes store; checking out pinterest and re-pinning, re-pinning, re-pinning... which usually leads to reading more blogs.

The point is, this has got to stop!

The weather is gorgeous! I'm in the middle of a great book! I have kitties and husband to snuggle with! And where am I spending the bulk of my time? Sitting in front of my computer.

So I've been thinking... What would it be like to un-plug from the internet for one week?

Granted, I'll still have to check email for work. But overall, I want to pare my computer time down to the essentials, and no more.

What could I accomplish? How would it change my life?

So, I have decided to enter into this grand experiment. I'm doing it. Starting this Sunday. From Sunday, October 13th through Saturday, October 19th, I'm unplugging. Well, almost unplugging. I'm allotting myself 20 minutes each evening to post about how each internet-free day went. I'll even set the timer.

I encourage you to join me! There's got to be some part of you that yearns to be unshackled, doesn't there?

So get ready! It's a computer cleanse.