About two weeks ago, I broke up with the Internet. “It’s not you, it’s me,” I explained. “You’re great. I wish we could still be friends, but I’m not very good at that. So here’s how it’s going to go. I’m going to use you. Remember a couple of years ago, when the New York Times discovered the term, friends-with-benefits? You are not going to be my friend, but I’ll still reap the benfits. Research. Communication. Utility — buying stuff, booking travel.”
Other than that, I’m allowed 30 minutes a day and I go to exactly three sites: Nancy Nall’s blog, Jezebel (primarily for Fine Lines) and Romenesko. Obviously, I often use these sites to read other things — Jack Shafer’s piece on Frank Rich, for example, and his new relationship with HBO. But the fact is, I seldom use my 30 minutes of allotted reading time.
So how can I continue to maintain a blog? Well, as you may have noticed, I’ve barely been maintaining this blog, but that was part of the withdrawal period. It falls under the category of communication. Hypocritical? Maybe. I’m still working that out.
Let me stress — there’s nothing wrong with the Internet. It’s a tool, like anything else. And, lately, it was as if I had plucked a hammer from my tool box and used it as a flyswatter. Worse still, the fly was on my forehead. My attention span had been damaged; I was finding it difficult to read novels. This week, I’ve read two novels — including Duane Swierczynski’s superb Severance Package — and listened to A LOT of This American Life. A practice that was kick-started by Nancy Nall’s praise for TAL’s Giant Pool of Money. So, again, there’s nothing wrong with the Internet. I was the problem.
The Internet more or less vanquished from my life, I discovered that I could not watch certain television shows, because my enjoyment of them was augmented by visiting the boards at TWoP and reading about how stupid they are. So I’m pretty much down to “Top Chef” and “The Paper.” (Yes, I feel the Lorber love.) And I’m beginning to watch Slings & Arrows on DVD.
Here’s the oddest thing that has happened so far. I was burning CDs for friends, listening to Re-birth’s I Feel Like Funkin’ It Up and I started dancing in my kitchen. And I danced for twenty minutes or so. A ridiculous image — some of you are probably reeling from your screens, screaming, “My eyes, my eyes!” But it’s twenty minutes I don’t regret.
So I’ll still be here, stirring the memory pot. I hope people don’t see this as someone purely on out-go, interested only in the conversations I initiate. If you email me about a book or a film, I’ll probably respond with great enthusiasm. (Less Internet reading also means more time to keep up with email.) I could go on and on, for example, about William Grimes’s article on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, which I came close to buying a month ago, and discarded precisely because of its bias toward the late 20th century. And, also, because I did the math. On average, it takes me a decade to read 1000 books.
Relative to, say, Sarah Weinman. In her household, 1,000 books is known as “June.”
Enjoy the long weekend. And, in the spirit of the project, feel free to share stories of harmless things you had to give up for your own sanity.(I also gave up weighing myself for almost a decade, but I’ve been getting on the scale again, having decided that not-weighing myself gave the number just as much power, albeit in a different way.)
We gave up cable 8 years ago. I gave up meat and fish 12 years ago.
All the things I’ve put on pizza, I never thought of that. (I suspect my wife will love it. The 6 year old will say it’s green, get it off get it off getitOFF. He’s fun with oregano.)
One of my favorite pizzas is goat cheese, baby spinach, roasted red peppers (or better yet, peppadew) and some red onions that have been caramelized in Harpoon Raspberry Hefeweizen. (That all also works well as a steak salad with a parmesan peppercorn dressing.)
“I have read the upcoming Dusty Rhodes stand-alone, and it’s fabulous,”
Well, thank you, darlin’. And for what it’s worth, you know I think you rule.
Good for you, Laura. This Internet thing can suck the life out of a day without those limits you imposed. I’ve been watching Season Two of Big Love on DVD and loving it! It’s so nice to be able to choose when to spend the hour…
Hooray for free time, sanity and Slings and Arrows. That series holds a prime spot on my shelf between the Wire and Arrested Development. (Seriously.) I’m working my way through the entire I Spy now, was too young to see it and never found it in syndication. (My three year old is amused that “Little Bill” is in it. Thank you, Nickelodeon.)
As for giving things up, I gave up giving things up for Lent, for Lent one year. (Told that joke to a priest once, and watched him fold himself up into a pocket of spacetime and vanish trying to work out the semantics.)
As for seriously giving things up, I’ve read too much this year between the “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” plus watching “King Corn” on PBS, so that we’re giving up lousy food and–when possible–Walmart. A local group of farmers just started a CSA group, so we’ve signed up.
Believe it or not Laura, I have given up reading books that people tell me I simply “have” to read. In the Times this morning William Grimes makes the point that every one of those recommendations is an argument in the making. I listen to suggestions but no longer feel that pressure to struggle through tomes that are some expression of academic gymnastics that make me feel the need for a class in mental yoga.
By the way, David J., in our house we read your list of food books as well, recommended by my son the locavore chef, and they did make the same difference in our life. Much less corn additives, a great deal more purchasing at farmer’s markets.
The Internet is an astonishing map with a million little side roads to explore but, to pursue the metaphor, you can find yourself hours later lost down a rutted lane with no clear memory of how you got there. Go ahead and dance Laura.
It only gets worse for me. I feel addicted. This Democratic election campaign has only added to my problem. First thing in the morning I have to check the political websites. And I read them in a precise order. Every day the same way. The sites cover a range of political viewpoints so I can see what all sides are saying. Here’s how I start my day: 1. The Drudge Report. 2. Just Hillary. 3. The Huffington Post. 4. Politico. 5. Real Clear Politicos. It gets worse. Every one of those sites has links that take me to other places. But then that’s not the end. Depending on what’s happening between Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton, I check these sites several times a day, and alway, alway before I go to bed. This addiction has affected everything that I do. The house is a mess. I don’t cut the lawn or do yard work. My reading of novels is way down, and my writing has just about ceased. I think I’ll try to impose some Laura-like discipline on myself. I’m drowning in the political muck.
I am feeling you , Laura. I am an admitted Internet junkie. Or so I thought. I recently went to the Florida Keys for a few days. I took no laptop and only an iPod Shuffle so that I could listen to the same 20 songs and book excerpts I always listen to. Every morning at 9:30, my traveling buddy and I would go to the public library in Marathon and get on the Internet for the allotted 30 minutes. In that space of time, we did everything we normally do: surfing, reading, checking and responding to email. We just had to do it really fast. Once the 30 minutes were up, we each dropped $1 in the donations basket and went out into the world to enjoy it.
Becoming absorbed in the goings on via the Internet is fun sometimes. I have spent whole days going from one site to another. Yes, I admit it. I think I am getting over the Internet thing, too. Now about that cable TV…
You’ve inspired me to give up the non-business Internet use.
Real soon now.
Best thing that ever happened to me in the last few months was getting a book contract, and a deadline of September 1. I now hunker down and must write at least five pages a day, which means much less time on the Web.
Like Scott, I’ve been completely obsessed with the primary season and jump from blog to blog, news story to news story. But with my book deadline, I’m limiting it severely and forcing myself to just watch Keith Olberman at 10.
Facebook is another story. If I can just get people to stop challenging me to Scrabble games…
I gave up eating crappy processed food, but I haven’t given up any weight because the goat cheese, roasted tomato and local asparagus on toasted garlic Naan tastes great with a rioja, or a pinot noir, or a cotes du Rhone.
I gave up on politics after being lied to by the rat bastards in the 60′s and 70′s and that was the best decision I have ever made. I hope Scott and Karen can see the light and discover the daily joy of reading box scores first and the comics second.
Slings & Arrows is a fantastic show – especially the first two seasons. The third was much better than a lot of tv out there. Just not quite as enjoyable as the first two.
Now, see, here’s the flaw in my hiatus: I didn’t know of Karen’s new contract (how can it be that no one suggested TATTOO YOU) and I’ve been missing Dusty’s blog.
But here’s the thing — my writing career and the development of the Internet dovetail pretty neatly. I first went online with an external modem (26 whatever) and found my way to a Compuserve board where people were filing about this weird thing called “Bouchercon” that had just been held in England. (It’s also where I “met” Val McDermid.) Most of my publishing peers don’t blog, and we go months without emailing, but I never feel out-of-step with them when our paths cross. I’d rather read your book than your blog, I guess.
And, in that spirit, let me just note almost a year after the fact that I was crazy about TRASHED by Alison Gaylin. I have read the upcoming Dusty Rhodes stand-alone, and it’s fabulous, and I can’t wait to read Karen’s new book.
Oh, and CSA’s are great. My family’s peripatetic lifestyle doesn’t mesh with them, but the farmer’s market is up and running again. Ever minced kale and put it on pizza? I heartily recommend this.
I’m giving up DISH next week. Less TV = more writing
I start a 3 month long blog hiatus in 48 hours. Yup, I’m going to blog rehab.
Come September I’ll start a blog series on Internet Addiction and how to find time to write. There’s more than a little irony involved in my using the very machine I rage against to share the fact that I rage against it.
The only places I get on the Internet are my sister’s house in Palm Bay, my church office, and my “day job” office. I’m WAY behind on email, but have decided to limit myself to specific areas. I’m in the middle of planning a proprosal for a non-fiction history of The Seminole nation, so that’s taking up a lot of my time. When I got rid of the Internet in my apartment, the amount of time I spent actually writing went waaaay up. I even got rid of cable TV (only thing I miss was The Wire, but my DVD library is about to be enhanced with that one…it’s on my birthday list with a pretty good feller I know), not only for the expense, but for the time I spent vegging on the couch instead of actually writing/working.
I’ve been a lot more prolific. Too bad none of it’s paying…yet.
Yes, Laura, there is an Internet; but using it is the only way to keep your sanity. I can attest that it can take over your life.