4.29.2010

tiny internet addiction

i've been having a problem with the internet.  (perhaps it has replaced cigarettes in my life?)  so funny enough i found some helpful advise while tooling around on ... the internet.  from the great keri smith:

"I am attempting to spend less time on the internet these days, (notice 'surf the web' did not make it onto the list.) I find it to be eating up large chunks of my time, time that might be better spent on other things, things on the list for example. I realized that my daily blog list is as long as a good size dissertation. In some ways it has become just as consuming as television, which I cut out completely a year and a half ago. The main reason being I started to weigh the value of the experience, what was I getting from it? Did it fulfill me in some way or was I just watching mindlessly? The answer for the most part was yes and so I turned it off as an experiment. I also wanted to really notice how mass media made me feel. I discovered that I was responding emotionally to a lot of news stories and in the course of a day I could expend a lot of energy this way.
I like to try things as 'experiments', it doesn't sound nearly imposing as, "I'm quitting." The result is also that I don't feel deprived of the thing, but instead more like I always have a choice in the matter and right now I'm choosing to opt out to try something different. To see what will happen, how it will affect my life.
Truthfully I get a lot from other creatives on the web, I love reading about other artist's processes, getting inspired, making friends or finding an illustrator that kicks my ass. What I'm striving to cut down on is the mindless connecting, the moments when you look up and realize you have been reading about something you really care nothing about for the last hour.
I want to be conscious about what I'm taking in. I want to nourish my brain and psyche a bit more, give it some love."

mmm... yes helpful stuff.  must remember this on saturday when i try to get to work and not get sucked in to interwebworld all day long.  also planning to try out her idea of morning collage to warm up.  see more here.

(and was surprised and saddened to hear the poor girl has cancer in her eye.  boo.   damn that cancer.)

2 comments:

  1. she is so inspiring. we should write her good wishes and all.

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  2. oh, you cannot (. just tried to find a place on her website that would let you and there isn't one. bummer.
    she is really really amazing. [that's such a sucky way of expressing what i really mean to say - which is that it's so great when you find people that you wish you expressed yourself like - her]

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