There's been a bunch of good commenting lately. This comment by "jojomonkey" on "Conceding Defeat – The Internet is Stronger Than I Am" I thought is especially worth learning from.
jojomonkey wrote -
Sebastian,
It is funny reading this. I have been doing the same thing for quite some time. I don’t put quantified limits on myself but instead qualitative limits. Overall, technology (not just the internet) has the power to zap time away from us when misued or overused. I used to read tech blogs like every hour – waiting for the next update. I used to fiddle with my Android phone downloading apps, customizing, etc…I used to download all the popular TV shows with bittorrent because it was easy.
The question I finally asked myself was the same you asked yourself – what am I getting from all this? Does it make sense to even read about a whole sector of a particular technology if say you’re not interested in buying a product from that area? Of course not (unless your job depends on it). This is because in 6 months something else will replace it. Did I get anything from watching this ridiculous yet popular TV show? Does my phone work/look better?
I realized how much time I’ve wasted over the years worrying or partaking in things that always left me feeling that I had spent my time doing something but that something lacked some real substance. I now find more time to exercise (best shape of my life), read books (I’ve read 2 books in the last 6 months – thats more than I’ve read in the past 4 years), listen to new music, meet new people, and do a lot of things that have actual value to me.
The best part is knowing that I am not wasting my time on things that leave me feeling empty and indeed there is a big satisfaction in knowing that I have control over technology and I don’t let it run my life (I can’t even think of going back to using Facebook).
Really, read that whole thing. It's excellent.
"The question I finally asked myself was the same you asked yourself – what am I getting from all this? Does it make sense to even read about a whole sector of a particular technology if say you’re not interested in buying a product from that area? Of course not (unless your job depends on it). This is because in 6 months something else will replace it. Did I get anything from watching this ridiculous yet popular TV show? Does my phone work/look better?
I realized how much time I’ve wasted over the years worrying or partaking in things that always left me feeling that I had spent my time doing something but that something lacked some real substance."
And then some thoughts on how he changed it up... excellent comment, JJM, thanks for sharing that.