This comes out of a conversation I had recently. I'm not sure if the blog is the place to share it, but I'm still trying things. I hope you'll be understanding if, though I'm not a Christian, I have nothing against the faith, and a little evangelical spirit leaks out every now and then.
I've started to limit my internet use recently, and this is why...
Do you ever think about how we're all jerked around by pleasure and pain? I mean, every time you're feeling good, you say to yourself, "Now I'm here, this is going to last forever." If you've lived at all, you know it's not gonna.
Some others may not even enjoy the pleasant times, wasting them worrying about the inevitable shift to discomfort. They're chronically unhappy.
In the USA, our daily activity is pretty much divided along the same lines. There's work, which we don't want to do, and recreation, which our work buys for us, and which we use to forget how hard work is. It's been that way for a long time. The old Depression-era hit song, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, tells us that "work and play don't mix." Here, you click the arrow, and let the song nag at you with its Protestant work ethic and all, while you read the rest of the post.
When taken alone, neither labor nor distraction is very fulfilling for any of us. It's because experience is divided too much. Full experience is whole experience.
Though it's just practical to keep your outlook on life positive, sometimes the best thing is to say "no." Giving up work that consumes both you and your time, taking a lower-paying job to reclaim some of your day and your energy, can be a very good thing. Though luxuries will be lost, the net gain in happiness can be great. Do I really have to tell you that money can't buy happiness? How much of that junk you buy makes only a short trip from sweatshop to landfill?
And entertainment? It may have started as tales by the fire, myths that gave you a sense of your place in the world, but most of what we have today is calculated to help you forget your place.
Why are you online now? Is it to escape some reality that makes you uncomfortable? Are you hoping to find something that will brighten things a bit? It's good to have a laugh and forget your troubles, but how often have you stumbled upon anything that made a lasting difference? I hope that life is more than just trying to maintain a mood. While spending precious, fleeting minutes wandering through this seemingly unlimited expanse of trivialities, has your investment of time really paid off? Would it be better to click the browser's little X sooner, and get up and stretch, and look around at the world and yourself a little more?
It's good to use entertainment, just don't let it use you. Don't let it eat up your life.
Just say no to the internet!
Go find something you can do that will mean more than earning a paycheck. Go on, close the browser and go be something!
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