Day Twenty -- A World Without the Internet

Boy, am I glad that is over. It was terrible. It was horrible. It shook me to my core.
Yes, you guessed it...I survived twenty four hours without email, facebook, online sudoku, etc.

I often caught myself about to click one of many apps on my iPhone and stopped myself. I tell you. This was not easy which is frightening to me. My eyes were opened. I realized I do "fill" a lot of time on-line. I allow myself to be distracted, I "multi-task" (does playing Mafia Wars on FB while watching a DVR-ed Oprah count as multi-tasking?) and I take precious little time to just "be". So while I have no desire to be completely off-line, I am going to think a little more before choosing to plug-in. Is this the best use of my time?

There is value to the convenience of the internet and I think that there is even some value to unwinding with the immediate satisfaction proffered by on-line gaming but it is no replacement for real life. No replacement for listening as my daughter sings along with Dora or declares do it again as I blow her tummy. No replacement for listening for the tenth time to my son's ever growing birthday request list. And no replacement for a genuine conversation shared over a phone rather than in fits and spurts through email, even if more convenient.

So Traci "tried it" and Traci says I never want my life online become more important than my life off.