Abstinence!

Hello Everyone!
I hope you had a good time abstaining from the internet...if only for a short time. I love reading your posts about your experiences. They crack me up! Someone wrote in their blog that 20 or thirty years ago we didn't have the internet. I laughed and thought they were way off base. But then I realize that it's been at least 15 or 16 years since it became pretty popular. WOW...how time flies. When I first came to OSU in 1993, I got my first email account and a couple years later the internet was well on its way. Things have changed. It's amazing how dependent we've become on this little thing called technology in such a short time. But the question that we have to ask, and many of you did, is this all really that necessary?

I was on sabbatical for Fall and Winter terms of this year. I wasted so much time doing NOTHING on the net. I finally had to turn my wireless off, just so I could do real work. The thing is, I love traveling when I don't have the internet. I purposefully rarely bring my laptop and just tell people I'm going to be out of touch for a while. I went to St. Kitt's in the West Indies in January with my sister ML, her husband Bill and her best friend BA. This was vacation. But BA and ML were on their laptops doing work at least a couple hours a day. Bill and I were on the beach, enjoying the down time. That's the thing with technology. We think it makes things more convenient and easier. But perhaps, it's too easy and convenient. Before the internet, my sister never would have been able to work on vacation. Now, not only could she but she was expected to work. With cell phones and computers we're expected to be reachable 24/7. That's crazy!

It's always funny when I get back from a trip and I eagerly turn on my computer to see what I've missed on email and Facebook. Usually, it turns out I haven't missed much. Emails are generally just loaded with more stuff I've got to catch up on and Facebook is just useless information that I could definitely live without. Yet, I still tenaciously open both first thing in the morning and throughout the day. I wonder if I'm using the technology or its using me? Sometimes I look at my dogs and I'm envious. They don't worry about what other people are doing. They worry about themselves, each other, me, the cats and when the next meal is. When they see their friends they just play in the moment. They aren't preoccupied with what Cage, Charlie, Trog and Pirate are doing right now. They don't care! Why should they? Oh, to be a dog!

Instead, we humans have found this "tool" to help ease us through life. But I wonder how much it eases us through a life that is lacking...lacking in human contact, real interaction, physical exercise, and the like. Yeah, there are benefits. I keep in contact with more people but it also distracts me from some important things. Wow, this is maudlin. I love the internet, I really do. This class just always makes me reflect. Oh, well. As Postman says, technology has good and bad. I guess the key is to realize this and make choices with this in mind.
Dr. Goodnow