Double-dog Huck dare
(UPDATE: check out the cool bling I got! (It’s at the bottom of the page, and in ‘Start Here’ up top) Then check out how the other Huckdoll challenge takers ‘disconnected to connect.’)
Huckdoll threw down the gauntlet… double-dog dared everyone to ’step away from the computer.’ She taunted us all with this:
I want to know that it’s not all about the internet and that you’re all able and willing to just put your hands in the air and back away from the keyboards and remotes for just one hour.
She seems to think that there are other things in life than blogging, or reading blogs, or lurking around blogs. Things like children, spouses, books, romance, downtime, ‘me’ time… what was she thinking?
Since starting my blog, almost a year ago, I don’t remember if I’ve ever gone a single day without at least checking my blog for comments, or cruising my blogroll to read other posts, or… you name it, not a single day without getting on my computer for something.
Every morning the first thing I do is look at my e-mail to see if I received any comments during the night.
Kinda sad really.
She has a point and a very good one. I have become obsessed with this thing called Internet. I have become too concerned about how many comments I get, how many hits I get, whether I can maintain a certain level of readership. That’s not how it was supposed to be. This blog thing was just supposed to be a diversion, something simple I could do in an hour or so a week. No one told me I would be online for HOURS, well into the dead of night.
So, what exactly does she want from me? Do I do something radical like get some freakin’ perspective? Do I find some sort of happy medium between total submersion and complete neglect ~ not with my family, my kids, or my husband… but with this terrible, awful, glorious, addiction called blogging.
Is there a patch for this? Or, is it better to just go cold turkey… face that glowing cyclops and say ‘not tonight dear, I have found someone better.’
This evening, I took that dare and shut down my computer, hit the power button on my cellphone and crackberry, even turned off the television. Huckdoll’s challenge was to stay ‘offline’ for only one hour… 60 minutes… 3,600 seconds… a lifetime!
Instead I spent that hour, plus some, with my family. I took my Girls for a walk, had dinner with my family ~ ate at the table and not on trays in front of the television, curled up in the dark with a good book and lost myself in tales of the supernatural and macabre ~ and didn’t take a single photo to post along with this missive. I still got all itchy from not being attached to my computer by a firewire, but I’ve been told that it gets easier the more I do it.
Check out the other bloggers who stepped up and took the challenge. Just click on the awesome, hot button.
Makes you wonder about how we were able to live life before the advent of the internet…
[Tara R.] MamaWise… how did we ever survive?
Aww, way to go, Tara!!!
Loved, loved, loved your post. This was exactly the kind of thoughts I was trying to provoke with the powering down. I think we are all guilty of being far too attached to the computers and TVs and I think a lot of people actually enjoyed their offline time.
Thank you so much for participating and even more so for posting about it! Make sure to come by the Hood for your reward (if you want it, that is)
[Tara R.] Jen… I really hope to make this ‘disconnect’ a nightly thing. Thanks for getting the word out. You rock!
I used to struggle with this a lot. Not so much anymore. I do exactly what you wrote here. I power my computer down so I can’t even sit down ‘for just a minute’ that may turn into two hours. I love.love.love blogging but I tamed the ‘numbers tiger’ in me
[Tara R.] Danielle… I really have to get control of how much time I spend on the computer… it has gotten WAY out of control. I need to do more ‘tiger taming’ too.
Thanks for stopping by!
I was so glad that I did it, but boy it was scary being disconnected from this world!!
[Tara R.] Tracey… I expected to be antsy, but not as bad as it was. I need to back away more often.
It couldn’t be more sad really of how addicted I am to the internet. From the moment I get up to the moment I go to bed 90 % of my day is viewing a screen.
[Tara R.] Lauren… I work for an Internet company, I do this all day, then stay on the computer all night. How wrong is that?!
Actually edit on my comment. on the weekdays it’s 90%…on the weekends it’s more like 5% :OP
[Tara R] Lauren… good to hear you take weekends off.
That is an awesome idea for a challenge!!! I’ve made the decision recently to just step away from the computer nearly completely on the weekends. It’s when hubby and all of us are home together. It’s only 2 days/week, but so important
I figure I can use the rest of the week to catch up if necessary.
[Tara R.] Sandy… I didn’t even tell my peeps what I was doing, but both my men folk noticed I wasn’t on the computer, and I think they really appreciated it. I do need to step away a lot more often.
I loved this post, I really did. and I think it was a great idea for Huck to come up with, as I truly believe that we as a nation are SO busy, so connected to people on the net, that we sometimes forget about the real things. Great job!
[Tara R.] Kori… found that my family misses me more than I thought. That means I’m hooked to this computer more than I need to be.
I just loved this challenge, and have been enjoying reading everyone’s experiences. What’s extroadinary is not WHAT people did, but how we all felt about doing it…just recharged and refreshed. Cool.
[Tara R.] ManagerMom… this was definitely a wake up call for me. Leave it to Huck to be the alarm clock.
I have to say that I did not do this.. not because I can’t live without the internet or tv, etc.. but because I was lazy ..but I did watch the world of the internet slow down for the hour on the East coast..
[Tara R.] Kim… yeah, it dropped to almost a crawl, but it picked up again around 10 p.m.