The Detox Tech Diet: Day 1

When I set my mind to a project and give myself strict parameters I am very disciplined. I look at it all as a game. If you break the rules you lose.  So at the end of Day 1 I am winning. But not easily.

You see this diet is a great deal more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew I was spending a lot of time wandering cyberspace but had not realized how much until I told myself I couldn't. And checking email only 4x a day! Well that was something I threw in for fun at the last minute and am finding the most difficult of all.

But I knew I was onto something right with this idea when I got into the elevator in my building last night. A man who lives here walked on, looked at me as if I was intruding on his private space, pressed the button for 12 and then made a call on his cell phone. I had to stop myself from asking if the call was the answer to cleaning up the oil in the Gulf and that was why it couldn't wait the three minutes until he walked into his apartment.

I read two newspapers cover to cover  and flipped through last week's New York Mag yesterday.
I learned Best Buy is giving away a cell phone application that would allow audiences to use their cell phones during a movie. That's what we need. More encouragement to not just be with one thing or person at a time.

I've decided the Wall Street Journal's new Greater New York section seems more repurposed articles from the NY Post than the quality that I expect from  WSJ journalism. I also found out that one of the most distracted, over booked and self involved doctors I ever went to in New York got himself on the list of Best Doctors 2010. Go figure.

The most interesting part for me is the feeling of separation I am getting as I limit my cyber news intake and read only what I choose.  I have an anxiety that I must quell that there might be something going on out there that I won't know about, some important something that I need to know.  Then I remember being in my twenties when I had to go out every Friday night and meet my friends. No matter how I felt or whether I wanted to, I went because I thought I might miss something. That might be the night the next great love of my life was waiting to meet me.  But I never missed anything and the loves, well, I always seemed to meet them somewhere else.

It makes me wonder if this new obsession we all have to be constantly in touch and connected is more of an addiction than anything else. Something that is keeping us from ourselves.  And as in most addictions to food, or alcohol or sex,  can be a good thing  when consumed in moderation but can be detrimental to our health when in overdose.

The folks at AA might want to get ready. This could be the new 12  step recovery program for the 21st Century.

Fear of Blogging

Some days I am afraid to blog. I am worried where my words might wind up. I agonize whether to comment on a stranger's blog or post a tweet that I have no idea who is going to read. I get spooked wondering how what I have to say will sit with the reader.  Some days I am uneasy with this entity we call cyberspace.

Cyberspace is a new frontier. And like the Wild, Wild West it does not have a lot of rules.

The plethora of new forums in which to speak our opinion, whether it is your favorite new lip gloss or how you feel about the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court are vast.  More people can be heard in more places. That is a good thing.

But what I don't think is so great is the lack of integrity with which some people speak their voice.   They are careless with their language, freely using words like "idiot" and "stupid", "slamming"  what or who they don't like instead of expressing  their opposing opinion with thought and substantiated facts. They forget what it means to be polite. They write without thinking first.

There are no rules for speaking in Cyberspace. I'm not sure that's necessary. The manner in which you make your voice heard is a personal choice. But there are pledges. I made mine with the  folks at Blog With Integrity. 

Most days I love cyberspace. I delight that I can connect across the globe from the comfort of my home office. I revel that I can write a blog, publish when I want to and hope that it will make at least one person, somewhere, think about something they wouldn't have otherwise. I like that I can read other blogs,  engage in a conversation with strangers and reconnect on Facebook with my friends from the first grade. I adore that if I have a question I don't have an answer to I can Google it and in minutes I have new information.

And then there are the days I am afraid  I might be the subject of someone's personal attack. That someone might slew a string of stinging words in my direction, not at my opinion, but at me because of what I think or write.  But I do anyway. It's good practice. As Allison Winn Scotch discusses in  a recent blog  it's part of what a writer signs up for when putting themselves in the public domain.

There are days when I am timid to put my voice out there. Today is not one of them.