____twoism

Hello Twoism,

Has anyone ever tried to "de-net"? This is something I am going to do for a while... spending less time on the computer and more with my family, taking walks, reading books, or just enjoying nature!

There was a period where I was maintaining accounts/profiles on Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Last.fm, and about a million different forums all at the same time, while checking each of my fifteen (no joke!) email addresses and updating my three blogs. That was not a good period for me and my relationships.

Anyway, that's where I'll be for the next little while - sitting on a rock, looking at the sky and feeling happy. Maybe I'll even make a little progress on my grand musical aspirations! Wish me luck...

Love, pianoforte

well. you started de-interneting youself with posting here. so yeah. great job so far.

Props to you. I love doing that. In fact I think I might soon. As we all know, the internet is evil.

If it wasn't the only way to communicate with my soulmate then I would totally. One day when we live together, she's the type of person who'd go with me on long camping trips with psychedelic journeys to embark on, and soon the internet is irrelevent 8]

But for now it's part of my career to be connected to the internet

Yeah, I've taken a couple sabbaticals from the net. It's always good to do once in a while. I caught up on some reading and music.

i think the most important thing to do is to find a balance between the two...

Today I randomly decided to walk down to the beach and just sit there and had several realizations. I always wanted to stop caring about my blogs/youtubes/facebooks/forums, but couldn't actually STOP caring until I discovered what really mattered to me.

I'm even planning on dehumanizing myself, eventually... maybe for days or weeks at a time.

Voodeedoo wrote:Today I randomly decided to walk down to the beach and just sit there and had several realizations. I always wanted to stop caring about my blogs/youtubes/facebooks/forums, but couldn't actually STOP caring until I discovered what really mattered to me.

I'm even planning on dehumanizing myself, eventually... maybe for days or weeks at a time.

Dehumanizing can be tricky. I have lived alone for a few years, and now that I'm unemployed I sometimes end up going a week at a time before I see or talk to anyone. I find that spending that much time living in my head can make me anxious and even a little paranoid about seeing people again, even my own family.

While I do love the solitude, it's definitely something that needs a balance.

Well, I've long since integrated the internet into a completely essential area of my life, so I can't really speak on this subject. I get what you're saying though.

I have actively chosen to use the internet less over this past year - I too chose to read more and do more pro active things (artwork, talk, go out, exercise, rest/collect my thoughts) I really on truly sit down for about an hour (sounds alot, but I am a student - the scope for losing entire days to the internet is huge ) a day to check everything I am interested in. The only exceptions are if I am ill, need research or a huge news story has broken (because I like the topical debate sections of the Guardian - requires sitting down for longer periods of time)

But like many people, the internet has become part of human civilization. Rather than completely neglect the internet you could only use it for pro active resource? It still has huge benefit if you use it wisely.

I must say I have enjoyed novels and creating things more when I've chosen to go back reading/working on something rather than taking an internet break. You continue the flow and it's not so scattered. Remember though, if you are an artistic person - "leakage" is a huge influence on anyone, the internet provides millions of subtle influences on how you create work.

Good Luck regardless

If my internet use was so out of control that I was on it more than a couple hours a day and I couldn't control myself and say "ok time to cut back" I would just stop paying the internet bill and cancel service.

fujee wrote: (because I like the topical debate sections of the Guardian - requires sitting down for longer periods of time)

...and a lot of coffee!

Interesting idea - I find myself using the Internet more and more, but less for entertainment and more as a tool - I used browse loads of forums for example, bit now this is the only one I use regularly.

I think it would only become a problem if Internet use got in the way if other things. Until then, it fits in quite nicely into my life - largely due to having an iPhone! What would have been down time is now productive time.

Start a game of Civilization 4 or 5, it should de-interneting you for a while (ok, just one more turn and so on...)

mechanismj wrote: Dehumanizing can be tricky. I have lived alone for a few years, and now that I'm unemployed I sometimes end up going a week at a time before I see or talk to anyone.

I've always thought of myself as an introvert (and there have been times where I've even felt like a loner) but if I spend more than 2 days without human contact, I start going insane/neurotic. Your psyche must be stronger than mine.

saturdayindex wrote:

mechanismj wrote: Dehumanizing can be tricky. I have lived alone for a few years, and now that I'm unemployed I sometimes end up going a week at a time before I see or talk to anyone.

I've always thought of myself as an introvert (and there have been times where I've even felt like a loner) but if I spend more than 2 days without human contact, I start going insane/neurotic. Your psyche must be stronger than mine.

It took a lot of practice.