Gratitude 84

There's nothing like having to lose your computer, even if for a couple of days getting it repaired, in order to remind you that :

1. You're hopelessly addicted to the device.
2. That you belong to a very privileged class if you have home internet
3. That now you have an opportunity for a tech cleanse and you can use your time a little more creatively and also productively.

Who can't admit to not having wasted even a little time on the Internet?  Usually I'm what you could call a responsible user, but even I get distracted at times.  This is why I never carry Internet access outside of the home with me.  I've seen what it does to others, how it can literally suck your soul out of existence while you waste valuable hours in the coffee shop, on the sidewalk or on public transit or wherever else you might find yourself hopelessly glued to your dear little tech toy.  Is reading the Facebook update of someone you would never sit in a coffee shop with really worth the risk of stepping in dog shit and dragging it home with you?

I do miss it for other things of course: YouTube videos, all documentaries in Spanish and not one crazy cat video nor anything that I should be too ashamed to mention on these pages; writing and sending emails, writing this blog, doing research, and that's about it.  Oh, and I also shouldn't forget to mention how often I check my email servers to see who wants to talk to me and the stats on my blog to find out if anyone is reading anything and what they might have to say, if anything.  In other words, this is a bit of a substitute life.

I think the Internet is really a substitute for authentic connection with others.  Believe me, Gentle Reader when I say this.  Today I had a half hour conversation on the telephone with a friend, which could have gone longer, but I had to get out quickly to drop my laptop off at the service centre,  In the service centre, I could easily have lingered chatting with the pleasant Iranian-Canadian owner, but I had to get out to New Westminster where I was meeting a friend for coffee.  In the coffee shop, my friend and I could easily have visited longer, but he had things to do with other people and I wanted to take a walk in a park I'd never visited before in Burnaby, where I might have walked even farther than two miles, but I had to be back in Vancouver to pick up the four paintings I'd had up in an art show.

In other words, Gentle Reader, I am grateful, both for the Internet and the many blessings it brings, and for regular life away from technology which brings even greater and more lasting blessings.