Cut down on Computer, Cellphone, and TV use

im just so selfish, i have to think of friends, family, pets, dieting/exerciseing (i hate myself and body) and school (im failing, i have a c average with some d’s and b’s) not procrastinating on this laptop of mine! hardwork…. “_16 months ago

Everywhere you look people are on their cellphones, laptops, or they’re at home watching cable, DVD’s, etc. In fact, most people would feel as though you have cut off one of their limbs if you took these things away (me included). The world is full of choices, overwhelming, time consuming, researching choices. When you go to look up something on the web, there are 50+ sites. Which one is the best? Socially, we are sabotaging ourselves. Everyone is in a rush to buy this or have that or to talk on the run, or return emails, watch this movie, text this person. What happened to quality time with people and discovering what is surrounding us. The things we are missing out on because we are too busy with our gadgets, or trying to keep them updated and the “coolest”, even if it means the most expensive, which we can’t really afford. How often have you not done something really enriching and makes us really satisfied and proud, such as learning a new language or a musical instrument, or actually completing the goals we are writing on this site, just so we can catch the finale to that new reality show. How often do we stay home on the computer or phone talking to people instead of taking the time to actually go out and meet them and doing something with the phones turned OFF! In fact, when is the last time you turned your cell phone off for an entire day?

I have been getting quite offended lately with my friends. The answering of calls when we are trying to spend time together, the text messaging (which my friend was doing during a movie), the checking e-mail from the phone, WHILE you are with someone. We are not connecting with people anymore, not that special connection you only get when you are actually with them, because when we are with them, we are also with 20 other people via devices. These recent generations have gotten so caught up in choices and having the best and coolest things, that our relationships are even suffering. We are constantly looking past the person right in front of us to see if there is something better down the line, and then we never take the time to REALLY know that person and if we want to keep them in our lives and in what capacity.

I also miss the sense of community, people seem too busy to stop and have a conversation with their neighbor or store clerk. And instead of seeking out people who are nearby we solicate the billions of people on the web to find friends. Friends whom you’ll probably never meet or develop a meaningful relationship or connection with because you have no conflict in that kind of simplistic capacity, and conflict and developing a relationship takes us to more intimate levels, and more profound knowledge of another.

We are telling our stories to anyone who will listen, setting up personal blog pages, forgetting the art of connecting to someone face to face, and then choosing whether or not to develop upon that. Or even worse, we are telling the thousands of people we don’t know about our day and life, and forgetting to tell the people we supposedly care about. We blog it, instead of meeting up with a friend and talking about it. Besides, is one person’s life so important that you have to blog it for the world to see. Why not write it on paper and show it to those we wish to get close to, or save it for our children to read. Or are we afraid of getting close, and not having the ‘best’. Might be someone out there who reads it that is better for you? Silly!

Sometimes in this world that has so many choices and so many ways to waste time, or distract ourselves from having to put some effort into the things that are right in front of us (and will probably make us more content and happy human beings), we are caught up in this frantic need to have everything the easy and quick way, we forget how satisfying it is to sit down with a good friend and lose yourselves in all the amazing non-technological things in this world.

So I want to cut down on the time I spend half-living, half-connecting to people, and actually complete the goals I set, not just talk about them on a website.

I will start by turning my cell phone off every time I am hanging out with a friend, and limiting my computer use (internet use) to one hour or less a day. And eventually that will be cut down even more.

Also, don’t get me wrong, I think there are some very useful things about gadgets and technology, I just dislike the excess, and what it is doing to us. 7 years ago