Internet Disconnect

Over the past 6 months, I have started disconnecting from the internet. I feel like it takes up two much time and full of trivial information. For example, I gave Facebook the flick. Too much personal info about people I don’t see or hear from on a day to day basis. And lets be honest – it is mostly rubbish.

But after reading Last Child in the Woods, I have decided to disconnect from the internet on a more day-to-day basis. Mainly because I started thinking about not only my connection with nature but also my connection with Little B. I want to be authentic and in the moment when I spend time with him. Not with my brain buzzing from computer use. So I have given myself the self-imposed rule that I can only turn on the computer after Little B goes to bed or is at preschool.

I normally read the paper online when I got up over breakfast. By stopping this, I’ve found that Little B and I have a really great connection first thing in the morning (even if I'm not the most awake morning person after a sleep deprived night ;-) He has completely stopped any attention seeking behaviour because he is secure in the knowledge that I am giving him my full attention. He also lets me do my morning and evening chores without raising a fuss at all.

I love blogs though because it feels like such a networking collection of mothers who have similar goals or drives as me. I dont know anybody IRL living the way that I do, and I find that I need that sense of connection or collective. So I still get to look at and blog myself in my allocated computer time. Or just spend time writing.

Now the funny thing is that I haven’t found this process too hard. Due to my previous occupation in marketing and administration, I have felt addicted to the computer and the internet for a few years. And don’t even get me started on email. Any previous attempts to withdraw, shall we say, were hard as I wanted to check emails, read the paper etc. But after reading Richard Louv and a few recent events in our lives, I have quite simply realised that it doesn’t matter.

I have gone days without checking my email, haven’t died from not reading current news first thing in the morning and found other ways to get the information that I want. I’ve also found that rather than spending all evenings on the computer as I assumed I would, I spend maybe 20 minutes then its off to my knitting projects or a belly dance class, hanging out with Mr B, watching DVD’s from the library, chatting with friends on the phone or immersing myself in a good book.

Who says technology has to be the be all and end all (even in this tech savvy age) J