Last Thursday, taking Ariel’s advice, I attempted to go unplugged.
This is usually what I do after work: I get home, boot up my personal laptop and start heating dinner up in the microwave. From there, I usually sit on my living room couch and stare at my laptop for the entire night until I get tired and go to bed – usually chatting via Instant Messenger, checking e-mail and twitter, work on my web projects, surf the web. Somewhere in between that time, dinner is consumed. For a diversion, I play World of Warcraft. By the time I crawl into bed, my shoulders ache and eyes hurt and MY GOD, I live a pathetic existence.
On Thursday, I got home, heated dinner up in the microwave and then realized that I wasn’t going to use the laptop that night. So, out of desperation, I started to clean. You know how crystal meth supposedly makes you suddenly want to clean the house? That was me, making my bed and washing the dishes, not necessarily because I had the energy but because it was there.
What can I say? Boredom is my anti-drug™.
After that, I sat on my couch and read. From a book. Did you know that pages from a book don’t have back-lit screens, so you have to sit next to a bright light? Yeah, I didn’t either. At around ten at night, I got strangely tired. Ten o’clock is a really early time to fall asleep for me – I’m usually up for a couple of extra hours on my laptop. But this time I was noticeably calmer and more relaxed, so any of those suggestions Ariel had on what to do when you were unplugged were quickly shelved for the next time. Write a book? Take a dance class? Eh, I’m sleepy. I’ll just lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling instead.
Oh God, I just re-read the above paragraph. No wonder I’m single.
You know what? I joke a little bit how “boring” the night was but to be honest I haven’t given myself a chill night in a while. I probably just couldn’t tell the difference, that’s all; you know how hipsters acclimate to conditions at Burning Man, or Swedes have to get used to the thinner air in an attempt to climb Mt. Everest? It’s like I’m trying to do that, except about a thousand times more pathetic. At the end of the night, I wasn’t as anxious and my shoulders did feel a lot better, especially after not being hunched over a laptop. (Like right now, typing out this blog post.) I’ll give it another try next week – maybe I’ll just to figure out what to do about this book I promised I would write years ago. Or I’ll go to bed at 9pm.
You mean 2+ hours without this thing we call “the Internet”? Not even peaking a little bit?
You’re a brave man Ernie Hsiung!
Braver than I, most surely.
I spent my saturday night reading a PHP book. So no better.
Laptops are not ergonomic. At least get a separate monitor and ergonomic keyboard for home use. But yeah, we’ll fill up our time with whatever.
Dude, I’m fully quoting this.
Pleeeease don’t stop. You need this. Plus, I want to keep quoting you.
I may give this a try, but I’m not sure how successful I’d be. Grad school doesn’t lend itself well to this sort of thing, but I sure wouldn’t mind one evening per week FREE from any studious endeavors.
Phil, I guarantee you’ll actually get twice as much work done and be much more creative and energized if you give it a go. The research is starting to cumulate…
Thanks for sharing your experiences Ernie!
-Leif
(Managing director of Spark Northwest
, the biz that hosted the ‘soul tech’ workshop Ariel went to before starting 52NightsUNplugged).
I recently came the realization that I spend roughly %80 of my waking time staring at one type of monitor or another. And I think another %10 is looking down at a keyboard because I never learned to touch-type. I’d suggest going to a pawnshop or thrift store and picking up a cheap-ass acoustic guitar to screw around with.
It’s pretty amazing how avoiding anything with pixels (TV, computers) can improve your mood. I don’t unplug nearly often enough. It’s the same for me: suddenly you get all sorts of free time out of nowhere and you don’t find yourself staying up until 2 AM for no good reason.
As for your social life: I do still owe you dinner.
Alright, what character do you play? It’s going to bug me until I find out. I imagine you’re the mage type.
Just over 2 years ago, I stopped having internet access at home. Home PC was seldom turned on. Laptop stayed at work. It was very good most of the time. But then again, I was not alone the majority of those 2 years. Now, I have internet access and am alone. If I could, I’d trade back in a heartbeat. No question.
Hey Ernie. Give us a little warning next time you go unplugged. My car needs washing and the dishes are piling up!
I guess we have a very similar life, I usually go home and start browsing/cruising online, plus I’m a lvl 70 Hunter on Proudmoore. Recently I have reduced my online activities since I don’t have the patience to save for a flying mount, I haven’t been on WoW for a while either.
It’s a lot more relaxing to just watch TV, cook leisurely, read, listening to music and knit.
Since you live in San Francisco, you don’t really understand the utter horror of winter. Granted, this year in Chicago has not been too, too bad. But when you’re don’t work a 9-to-5 job (as I do not) and everyone you know is at work or otherwise occupied when you are not, the Internet seems to be the only social refuge. Especially when it’s cold and you feel somewhat trapped inside.
But by this point (winter is 3/4 over) I am so cabin feverish that I MUST get out of the house. I think the best way of quelling boredom is to take a book and go sit somewhere comfortable — a park, a cafe, anywhere but home — and read. Fewer distractions, fewer electronic temptations. But alas, if you have an iPhone all this would be for naught.
I loves me the intarwebs, but after 8 hours of working on various Puzzle Pirates related things at the office, I have to get out and train or run or do other things.
I notice that my eyes take a moment now to adjust between focal lengths, and it freaks me out because I know this is caused by staring at a monitor all day.
You’re always welcome to take up the martial arts! Lots of pleasant, non-violent and fit young men in those.
… sorry for the double post, but a thumbs-up to those that turn off the television set. One person in the four-man flat I live in has the damn thing on every evening and it’s really annoying and distracting while I’m trying to clean/work/read. The noise pollutes the entire common area and the adjoining office.
Most impressive. Next step is to spend an evening at the public library…
Oh my little sweet yellow ernie. I come back to read your blogs after a year or so and I find you suffering on Web overload. Man oh man… youse got to take some time out for your soul. Please Ernie, go out and talk to people. Go to a theatre show. And on the weekend try walking or cycling about aimlessly. Please try and get in touch with your friend inside your self. You know the fellow that you hung around with during your early childhood years. Best of luck Ernie.
It’s not boredom, Ernie — it’s “procrasturbation”.
Procrasturbation, n. –
Wasting time by doing a less onerous task. Particularly popular with freelancers and those who “work from home”. Example: rather than doing my taxes, i decided to finally do last year’s spring cleaning. Example: rather than fixing all of the security holes in that Javascript prototype, he decided that now would be a good time to reorganize 3500 vacation photos from last year.
Ain’t nothing wrong with a little bit of procrasturbation now and then — too much, though, and you WILL go blind
I’m a fan of the unplugging as well. Probably because after a long day of sitting in front of a PC monitor for 8+ hours, the last thing I want to do is go home and sit in front of a home computer.
Although I seem to have no problem sitting in front of the TV? Well, not sitting, reclining. Maybe that’s it. I might not feel so tired from work if I were allowed to turn my office chair into a chaise. With pillows. And a blankey. It could work.
[...] comment on Ernie’s post about trying to unplug: Procrasturbation, n. – Wasting time by doing a less onerous task. Particularly popular with [...]
procrasturbation…
Funny comment on Ernie’s post about trying to unplug: Procrasturbation, n. – Wasting time by doing a less onerous task. Particularly popular with freelancers and those who “work from home”. Example: rather than doing my taxes, i decided to finally…..