I’ve been feeling particularly uninspired lately, and I think I need a detox. Specifically, an Internet detox.
The breaking point was earlier this week when I aimlessly opened Facebook on my phone while I had Facebook open on my computer — I was apparently so distracted by boredom scrolling through my social media feeds that subconsciously I felt opening it elsewhere would suddenly lead to more new and exciting things. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that lately I haven’t found much Internet content that made me learn something beyond the accepted view that most of the Internet is pretty much shit. When I went to compile my favorite web reads for this week’s link party, I had exactly six things to share instead of the 10 or 15 articles I usually pare down. And despite really wanting to write another blog post, I had no spark to come up with something. I don’t know if it’s because my life has considerably slowed down lately, but I have to recharge my motivation and creativity. Besides deactivating my Facebook for a spell a few years ago, I’ve never detached myself from my Internet presence. Now I’m going to try it and see if it helps.
Here are my detox rules:
1. Because so much of life in 2015 is dependent on the Internet, I’ll be detoxing just for the week: Monday morning when I wake up to Friday at noon.
2. No browsing, researching or posting is allowed…
3. …but I’ll be checking my emails once a day at noon just to make sure nothing super important comes through. (Disclosure: I have to send one important email Monday morning, but that’s it.)
4. I’ll still be available via text.
To make it more interesting and see how good my willpower is, I won’t delete any of the social media or messaging apps on my phone or block my Internet browser. However, I will be turning off push notifications.
On Friday afternoon, I’ll write about my results and post it here. If you’re also feeling in need of a recharge, feel free to join me and share your thoughts at the end of the week.
