I am a MAN, dangnabbit. An independent man. A man with 50+ years of life experience.
Hang on a sec…
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Back. Sorry…where was I? Oh yeah…
Don’t presume that I am some kind of Pavlovian experiment, where I merely hear a bell and am compelled to react. No one controls me. I have my agency! I can be and do what I choose.
Umm. Sorry…just a quick minute….
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OK, back. Phew
I have learned to “put off the ‘Natural Man'” and not be…
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..sorry – *chuckle* but that was a funny one. I apologize.
We have been taught that we should act, and not be acted upon. I will act! I am not at the mercy of my surroundings. There….
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…aaaand I’m back. (Sometimes those quotes on pictures are so inspirational – made me kind of tear up.)
Anyway, self-mastery is one of the character traits that I have always prided myself on. I am comfortable in knowing that I can overcome my weaknesses.
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….Sheesh. Sorry I even left. Cats. Can somebody tell me what the deal is with cats? I get so sick of seeing picture after picture of cats. Cats and home remedies. And the political battle du jour. End of cat rant.
There are a lot of people who are “predisposed” to addictions. I feel badly for them – it can be damaging to a life, and there can be collateral damage. I don’t want to fall into that trap. Did you hear that? Hang on…be right back…
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I have an idea: I’m going to deactivate my notification “tone” and then finish my train of thought. By the way, the tone is a little “beep” it is not a “bell.” It is completely not “bell-like.” Whatever, I’m turning it off until I finish this post. Just thought you should know.
Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I am in control of myself. I am not addicted to the internet, or “Social Media” in any way, shape or form…
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Cool – just got a couple new comments. I love comments, unless they are mean. I need to make sure they aren’t hostile before I post them to the blog. Hang on…
OK. I see it very much as I see my soda consumption. I can quit anytime I want to. No big deal. All I would have to do is go to my Facebook home screen and deactivate…
Hey look! Four new friend requests. I wonder where they are from? Utah, Utah, Idaho and Spain. Spain? Thats cool. I’ll be right back – I want to see if they post in Spanish or English. Spanish. Whaddya know – It sure is a small world!
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Anyway, about the whole internet addiction. It does not have a hold of me. Like I said before, I excel at self-mastery.
Really. No, I mean it. If you don’t believe me, ask my EC. On second thought, scratch that, she’s busy and doesn’t need to be bothered with this.
And then, this past weekend, the general Primary President – President Wixom, stands up and counsels us to “disconnect from technology and reconnect with each other.” Good thing I’m not in the Primary program, or I might have thought she was talking about me.
I’m gonna go back and read it again. OK. I quoted her correctly. Yup. Primary.
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So for now, I guess I’ll keep trying to “Go Dark,” or stay “Incommunicado” on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, because it has been so successful for me. And by successful, I mean that I am never, ever on Facebook, or playing with my blog on those days.
Why those days, you may ask? Monday, because I need to be productive the first day of the week, and Monday evening should be reserved for “reconnecting” with my family. Wednesday, because it is two days after Monday, and Survivor is on, and Friday, because I always have too much to do on Friday at work, and Friday night is usually date night. Can you imagine how my EC would feel if I pulled my phone out when we were, say, at a restaurant. What kind of person does that? How shallow can one be?
There are a few exceptions to the M-W-F rule. Exceptions for vital communication. Of course.
And by vital communication I mean that:
a) I forgot what day it was.
b) I have a funny joke that I can’t wait to share.
c) I need something to read in the bathroom.
d) I need to tell the world that I have posted something here on the wrong day.
e) Or, someone posts something incredibly unique – like a picture of “bacon something” that needs to be responded to immediately. Sometimes I feel like it would be uncharitable to not respond to people who leave me comments and stuff. I mean, I don’t want them to feel ignored or anything.
You know, important things.
I’ll keep trying to focus on what’s important, and reduce my online time. But I’m sure glad that I don’t have a problem. (Like those poor people on Twitter.)
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This was very funny. Lets leave it there. Funny true-ness.
Kiaora from New Zealand, I enjoyed MMM General Conference comments and especially like the direction of this post. Motivated by Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” I recently decided to greatly increase my own “going dark” times and I am very impressed with the results. I am able accomplish so much more than before. God bless.
Just found your blog recently and have enjoyed it immensely. This post reminded me of a quote from Elder Perry’s talk at Conference. He said “If worldly priorities are any indication, we certainly have “other gods” we put before the true God. We make idols of celebrities, of lifestyles, of wealth, and yes, sometimes of graven images or objects.” I have always thought myself pretty good at obeying the commandments, but this made me think again. My “graven image or object” – my computer, my smartphone, my kindle… A wake up call to me to stop putting these “other gods” before the true God.
Good for you for taking action and trying to decrease your usage! A few months back the bishopric in our ward had a special sacrament meeting regarding addictions including Internet and social media and counseled on things to do as a family to overcome addictions and this is when I started cutting back my internet/fb time. That was reinforced during sister wixom’s talk when I realized what I could be missing by spending more time with my daughter! I hope going dark goes well for you.
Yes-It’s truly amazing how one reacts to that little “ding” !!!!!
…or you log back on Facebook to grab some phone numbers- and that you can’t remember your password to log back off…I wish I was kidding…
I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog via Pinterest. You’re hilarious! Thanks for the laugh this morning. And the slightly uncomfortable feeling that I *might* know what you’re talking about…
Could have done without knowing c
And you have captured the ADD brain perfectly!! Welcome to my world!
Entertaining the idea of a dark day – please advise
Sadly, I think is does have some ADD elements in it – but they are purely self-inflicted.
So, were you forgetting what day it was yesterday or in the bathroom? Nevermind…I don’t want to know! 😉
Got a great laugh reading this and can’t wait to hear what my husband thinks when he reads it. We both enjoy your blog and this is an area we’ve talked about before (being constantly connected) and is actually the topic of FHE next week for our family. We approach it differently. He chooses to do a little bit of it all (internet time, smart phone, facebook, tablet, etc) while I only do internet time (with zero social media, don’t even have accounts on any social media). He’s better at doing a little of each, while I would rather use all my time in one area. If I tried having multiple platforms and devices I would get sucked into spending lots of time on each one.
And going dark is a great idea! We do that for some things already as a family. For example no video/computer games except on Saturday. And then each person gets 20 minutes (we’ve got 7 kids until baby is born this summer). Summertime finds us eliminating Netflix most days of the week/weekend, while in winter we allow limited Netflix time daily for the family.
I found it interesting that after Sister Wixom came Elder Clayton’s talk on marriage with this counsel:
“Their dinner hour and the family time that follows become the center of their day and the object of their best efforts. They turn off electronics and forgo personal entertainment in order to help with household duties. To the extent possible, they read with their children every night and both participate in putting the little ones to bed.”
Again, the electronics off, time spent as a family with the added suggestion to read with our children. I love seeing the way the Lord dovetails the messages in Conference to teach line upon line, here a little, there a little!
I was thinking it sounds like ADD.