*Students must abstain from the internet…ALL internet interaction for one 24 hour period. You cannot use email, check Blackboard, see the sports scores, research, or do anything else on the internet. If you fall off the wagon, you have to start all over again. WHAT HAPPENS? You should blog about your period of abstinence. How does it affect your ability to communicate? How does it affect how you spend your time? What do you do to replace your time on the internet? These and other questions should be discussed in your blog.*
The assignment for this week was to abstain from the internet for a 24 hour period, which was actually a lot easier than a I though it might be. My first reaction was, “Great, how am I supposed to abstain from the internet with 5 classes to attend to.” Then I realized it’s the first week and it’s probably not going to hurt much of anything. I think the hardest thing was the fact that I was being told to abstain, which always makes something more tempting.
I do use the internet to keep in contact with a lot of my family since I am far from home, and so I have a facebook with many of them as my “friends.” Normally that would be something I would check every day, but I found that going one day without checking it really threw off my routine and so I went a few days before I remembered to check it and had lots of messages. A nice surprise more than anything.
I spent my time with my husband watching movies and actually getting some much needed work done around the house. It’s amazing how easy the internet makes things to procrastinate. All the reasons seem really justifiable too, like “oh I have tons of homework can’t do the dishes right now” but really? Who doesn’t end up window shopping or looking at some silly site like YouTube?
The internet is really just a crutch in a lot of instances. From using it instead of a phone book to look up a number, or myspacing/facebooking instead of the old fashioned snail mail or *gasp* phone call. It really has changed many things, whether for good or bad, that is up to personal opinion. It’s nice to have the world almost literally at your fingertips, but we shouldn’t forget about all the other things in life, like the dishes.
January 14, 2009 at 3:36 am
I am like you in some ways. I use the internet to put off doing chores I really should be getting done, although I had a tougher time staying off than you did. I like to look at my classes multiple times a day just to make sure I am on task. I too am on facebook, this is how I have come BACK into contact with people I haven’t seen in over 15 years.
January 15, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Kimberly,
Great first post.
I loved the comment about being told to abstain, it really does make it all more tempting. It’s amazing how much work we can get done without any use of the computer. I always say, ok I am going to get my homework, pay some bills online, and catch up on a few emails. I hop online, and I probably spend a huge portion of my time doing the complete opposite of what I had intended to go online for. It’s crazy how the internet kind of “sucks’ you in!
January 16, 2009 at 5:38 am
I completely understand and can relate to how you felt. I too was worried about not being able to get on the internet and check my email and blackboard accounts. I also communicate with friends from home on myspace so I had the same apprehensions about not being able to send them a quick message or simply check if they had left me a comment. I found this assignment to be rather frustrating though because I felt I missed out on a lot of information that my instructors posted on blackboard as the info would have been helpful in completing assignments.
However, now that I have read your blog I see the benefits of the assignment. I can relate to your not doing the dishes as you have other more important things that need to get done first. Yet, in all reality majority of the time we have a chance where we could do the dishes or fold the clothes or make the beds, but we find ourselves running out of time because we have dwindled our time away at looking at the sales that are going on at Nordstrom’s or Macy’s. I know personally that if I did not distract myself by searching the internet for items I do not need and other such things I would not, as you say procrastinate as much and be left to stay up later to get everything accomplished.
I like the example that you used of looking up numbers on the internet versus picking up a phonebook. I cannot tell you when the last time that I used a phonebook was because it is so convenient to use the whitepages.com because you get a response almost immediately. All in all, this assignment seemed to be helpful for both of us because it seemed to pleasantly surprise us by informing us how much of a grasp the internet has on our lives. Hopefully we will be able to resist the temptations. As for me…I’m not so sure!