See what I mean? I spent 10 minutes taking this, including time for make-up. And there's no one here but me and the dog. And the computer, of course! Oh, but I did have fun!
Is anyone else feeling totally bombarded? I mean, I hate to add to the glut of chatter about the information glut. But I’m afraid I have to.
It all started with this wonderful new computer. Oh, the places you can go! Oy vey. I can do all kinds of things at once…and rather than balking and complaining like its predecessor, it just about hugs me back!
But, Oh, the places you can go! About the second hour after it was set up, my future flashed in front of me. OMG. MORE to say no to. My old computer didn’t run video. In the past, when someone sent some darn thing that might be fun to watch but would suck another five minutes of my life out through my eyeballs, all I had to do was borrow my son’s laptop, or shrug off the must-see material and do without. Most of the time, I did without.
And that was a good thing. There’s plenty of way cool stuff out there, for sure. BUT I CAN’T TAKE IT ALL IN!
No one can.
And, there’s some scary stuff to avoid. Seriously. I mean, there’s someone tweeting stupid stuff people do. I spent five minutes on there before I realized I was about to click on some videos that might take me where I never, ever want to go.
Which brings me to the no’s. Check e-mails every five minutes? No. Goof around on Facebook? No! Noodle through YouTube looking for Phil Phillips’ latest? No, no, no! There is work to be done.
I was on the computer in the middle of hunting for a job this morning, when all of a sudden, my evil twin said, “You’ve been working hard for two whole hours. Why don’t you see what TV shows you could watch on this new babe?” I was actually five minutes into an old Daily Show when I heard, “No!” Whew. Narrow escape.
Ladies and gents, children of all ages, we have reached the age of the 10,000 no’s a day. It’s about survival. It’s about keeping our brains from frying.
I read about a couple, a high-tech, plugged-in duo, who turn off EVERY BIT OF TECH from Friday night to Sunday. Whoo whee! Now that’s saying no. And the result, they said, is they get to actually, like, talk to each other, making eye contact and stuff. Nice, right?
My friend Marlyn, she gets so hijacked by all that brain-suck stuff, she doesn’t use the very nice laptop her husband bought her AT ALL. Ever. I am serious. That is one big honking NO.
She seems fine. And she’s at a stage of life where she can get away with it. (Plus, she has friends like me who fill her in about, say, the latest debacle in the elegant world of high finance.) At this point, I’m not prepared to unplug totally. I have to use my computer for work and for keeping track of friends and family.
And, truthfully, I can use a good hug now and then.