Caught in the Web

When we first arrived in Belgium, we had to wait for our belongings to catch up with us and for close to two months, I lived without a computer in my home. Not having daily access to e-mail, news, and the weather increased my sense of isolation from my local environment and the world at large. Our apartment had a TV but all the programming was in Flemish or French. Ditto the radio.

When our computer finally arrived and we had high-speed Internet access hooked up, I was thrilled. Every morning I could check the weather and news, read excerpts from my local paper in the U.S., shop online, e-mail friends and family, and research places to visit and expat resources in Brussels. When I started blogging a few months later, my time online blossomed along with the scope of my online community.

Writing and reading blog entries and answering e-mails now consumes several hours a day. I enjoy both my new and old  relationships and the chance to write creatively, but it’s been too easy to start drifting into dead space on the Web, to escape the gray skies outdoors by keeping my eyes fixed on the blue glow of my monitor.

It’s hard to face that the very tool that has liberated me from my expat isolation and boredom has the capacity to undermine quality of my life as well. With the weather warming and the flowers beginning to bloom, I need to get out of my office and exercise more, pick up my camera and record the view, tackle the basement and attic clutter and give the house a good spring cleaning, step out of my routines and explore the world outside my door.

The challenge, of course, is to translate good intentions to actions, procrastination to productivity.

Do I limit the time I spend writing and exploring the Web by setting a timer, the same technique I use with my children? Do I wheel my computer chair out of the office so I can’t sink into it and click over to worthless Hollywood gossip sites when I’m bored or looking for an excuse to sit down? Do I make myself a daily and weekly schedule with explicit goals? Could I live with that?

Finding a balance will be tricky. While I think structuring my time is a good idea, I’m also a creative type who likes to follow her Muse whenever and wherever it leads. Will my Muse follow me if I take the lead? Can I devote my time online only to the sites and tasks that deserve my attention and ignore the rest?

Do any of you consciously manage your Web time? Do you think you spend too much time online?

© 2007 Veronica McCabe Deschambault and V-Grrrl in the Middle. All rights reserved.

Comments

[tamar]

Thanks for the question. Other than, "I, too, spend much, much time on the 'net," I have no answer. I excuse this behavor by claiming that the weather, here, too, is, well -- grey and rainy and sometimes subfreezing. I, too, follow the Muse's timetable, and I question whether I am laying on myself guilt for harming no one. The flab on my thighs and elsewhere will be there when I feel the urge to return to a less sedentary life. Last, as I sit in my oh, so, comfy Aeron chair (glad I bought it THEN, given today's prices), I am finding incredibly wonderful content on the sites I visit (many the result of googling terms or phrases I want to research or verify for my blog posts and the rest of life). So be a slug, I mean productive citizen, and surf on. And know that others ask the same questions. This knowing is often, for me, a comfort and answer, of sorts.

[Rick]

I absolutely spend too much time on the Web. I have a (theoretically) fulltime job and I'm fortunate to be able to work at home, where I have a separate computer/network for "work." I'd love to quit this very UN-fullfilling job, but they're paying me to do virtually (and literally) nothing. AH-H-H-H-H-H!

[furiousBall]

I'm horrible at that, I lose countless hours to blogging and reading others blogs. My biggest problem is that I'm a software developer for my day and side jobs, ergo it's so easy to hit a tangent and get unhooked from my tasks. I generally am a good worker and can scramble quickly pretty well. But if I just managed my time better, I'd be a millionaire by now.

[TB]

I've started only logging on every other day, or every two days or when I'm able to do two things at once like watch TV while online. It seems to work pretty well.

[Inside out]

I find that I usually stray between work and internet surfing through the day and actually tend to get away from the computer on the weekend to make sure I have the quality time with my wife and kids that we loose during the week...I/O

[Rory]

We don't schedule our surfing time, so, I guess in that sense it is a bit hit and miss. But, on the other hand, it is quite casual - not so intense that when Beth wants our attention we cannot give it.

Then again (I didn't have any more hands) I try to get up pretty early, to have time online without disturbing others.

That last comment effectively means I crossed out everything I said before, and replaced it with "Yes, I do have a schedule." All this surfing must be addling my brain!

[Shirley]

I do try to limit my time online (to about 15 minutes several times a day, which still can add up obviously) because if I stay on too long I find myself doing exactly what you mentioned … wasting my life by reading meaningless drivel about celebrities and such. (It’s really no different than wasting time watching mindless TV. We all know how we have so much more time to do things when the boob tube is turned off.) The exceptions are a chat that I participate in occasionally using AIM and correspondence related to supporting others with gluten intolerance, mostly newbies—those two activities always take longer than 15 minutes, but are well worth it to me. If you don’t use AIM regularly, I highly recommend it for arranging a chat to keep in touch with friends (would have been a great way to have a birthday "celebration" with your friends, V). It’s an outlet you really can’t appreciate unless you’ve tried it. My group is scheduled to chat once a week, but with everyone’s crazy schedules, it only happens about once a month or every 6 weeks. Sometimes just one other person is there to chat with you. Sometimes there are four of us. Sometimes you start out with four people and end up with two. We always end up laughing like crazy about something and feeling so much better by the time our chat is over (mostly driven by getting tired of typing LOL).

[Neil]

I have that bad habit myself. I seriously think a timer or alarm going off is not a bad idea. Something like two hours a day and that's it. I've thought of trying it myself.

[Nance]

I'm sorry...did you say "weather beginning to warm and flowers starting to bloom"???!!!

WHAT?!

(sound of Nance falling down and beating her head on floor, crying and sobbing uncontrollably ensues.)

[Di]

Reading this reminded me to ask you if you had heard of Julia Cameron and her book 'The Artist's Way.

Her website is here ... http://www.artistswayatwork.com/awaw.html

And ... don't forget Erica Jong's 'Woman Enough' ;)

Lol, I'm not helping at all, am I but lady, you have oodles of talent, get a cleaning lady instead and write and create!

[Courtney]

Since I work online, I have a hard time limiting my time on the net. I tend to make the mistake of seeing all net time as important time, whether or not it is. I've got to develop a better balance of my time.

[Nocturnal]

I work online as well from home, yet I can't say I spend too much time. It's in the blood I guess.

[mamatulip]

Yeah, I'm online too much. I really try to limit it during the day, but if they nap or if Julia's content doing something on her own for half an hour, I'll jump on. I'm on more in the winter months, when it's cold as heck and going outside isn't really my idea of a good time.

[Tera]

I know I am online too much. It's a very hard habit to break. I use the net for everything and simply can't understand people that just get on once a week to read their mail, or god forbid, don't even have a computer! I don't know a good answer, but if you figure it out, let me know...

[Nancy]

I definitely do spend too much time online, though I have cut back on my blogging time. I keep hemming and hawing about just going cold turkey for a week or so, but I don't think I can do it until hockey season's over (fantasy hockey stats need to be checked at least daily, and being on the computer for that would lead me to other things...)

Sigh. I have no resolve.

[javacurls]

I also spend WAY too much time online! I've tried to curb my online time but it hasn't helped. The only thing that has worked is going on vacation (without the computer).

What I NEED to figure out is how to function with minimal sleep so I can do all the things I want. ;)

[Dio]

I too am caaught on the web (and here). And I like it.