Simple Suggestion #168... Be e-free

I've been thinking about this one for a while... and about the way electronic devices are taking over peoples' lives. Mine included -- my family bought me an iPod for my birthday, and I've enjoyed listening to music as I work in my garden. The problem is all the other stuff on the little gadget -- email, FaceBook, snapchat and the most evil Words With Friends ( ha -- I have really been enjoying playing the internet version of Scrabble with my sisters, a couple of words a day, though I've never been very good at the game). I would guess that I've only used my iPod for listening to music maybe 20% of the time!

Have you noticed that you can't go anywhere any more without seeing someone twiddling on a smart phone or some other internet connected gadget? Even our family conversations have been interrupted with people checking Google for some piece of trivia or sharing some video that, in the past, wouldn't have been essential to any possible conversation. The immediacy of information and instant messaging has the world hooked, and somehow, I'm not convinced that's good for us as human beings.

So today's suggestion is simple -- and difficult -- for our internet addicted age: Be e-free one day each week, and if not one day a week, at least several conscious hours a day. I've decided that I'm going to avoid all electronic devices for one full day a week (I usually write my Sunday moodling before Sunday anyway) and find other things to do. Outdoors, perhaps. Or in my library. Maybe I'll sort my photo albums, or do some knitting (the weather's supposed to be lousy this weekend), or put on my rain gear and pull a few weeds. I'll find some non-electronics-related activities to fill my day, and give my brain a break, like this three minute video suggests... Care to join me???

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Nah, take a break from your computer!