Technology

Portland tries to make entire city a Wi-Fi hotspot.

This makes me nervous. When I'm out and about, I want to be OUT AND ABOUT. I spend a lot of time on the computer, but when I'm not near a computer, I don't care about checking my email and whatnot. If I'm carrying my laptop around, it's just a hunk of metal and plastic until I get it plugged into a wall. Granted, when it's open I want to have internet access, but as far as using it outside of my home, it just doesn't happen.

This, like cell phones, is a sign of a time in which people can't stand to be alone. Everyone wants to always be sure that someone is out there ready to either answer a text, answer an email, or read and respond to a blog entry. Do you know how long it's been since I've gotten a letter from someone in the mail that started with something other than "Dear Valued Customer" or "You're Approved for X amount of Credit!!"? A long damned time.

I mean, kudos to technology for getting as far as it has, but I think people are starting to lose sight of what's important in lieu of what's entertaining.

I include myself in this category.

And this is where the blog goes from "informative" to "personal".


I would say I have a situational addiction to the internet. I check Google Reader compulsively, refresh my email page a lot, and can usually be found on the computer in my boyfriend's house if I'm not eating or doing something that was previously planned. I don't have quiet-time any more: I have internet-time.

I say "situational addiction", though, because if I know I'm not going to have internet access for a while, I will go through that weird short-lived withdrawal process (it lasts for maybe a couple of hours), and then I'm okay for the rest of the time I'm AWOL.

I deleted many entries on my Vox yesterday, and announced to my friends there that I'm cutting things off. I haven't read that branch of the blogoshere in weeks.

I'm tempted to do the same with my Livejournal, though I still check it every day. My deal with LJ is that there are people on there I actually know IRL and care about, who's lives I'd like to be caught up on. There are also out-of-towners whose lives I like to keep up with. But there's email, right?

The other reason I likely won't delete my Livejournal account is because that's where I write about my personal things for feedback. Since it's "friends only", I can choose who reads my stuff, and thus ensure that, unless they decide to be jerks and forward the text to someone via copy-paste, they're the only ones seeing it.


My point is that that article above kind of made me realize that I really do spend waaaay too much time online. While I'm at work...fine, whatever. Sometimes I just don't have anything else to do. But at home, I should only really be reachable by phone, unless I'm expecting a message from someone.


I think I'm going to close my laptop when I get home. I have plenty of time during the day right now to keep up with everything, so I'll be around. That will probably change next week, but I'll deal with that when it happens.


And now, lunch time.