Most of us do not realize how often we consume ourselves and our time with cyberspace, and other new technological devices, such as computers. After 24 hours of internet abstinence I felt relieved, I could finally get my life back together. I considered at least 1-2 hours of internet usage on any given day sometimes more depending on my schedule but nonetheless the web is my source of control. I use my email to talk to everyone from family to work and when that option was forbidden for the 24 hour period I felt helpless. I also have my life on my computer, my most importantly my schedule and I think that was why I disliked doing this so much I was unsure of all the things I needed to do during that time frame and felt less productive. That extra hours I would have been on the internet were spent cleaning my house top to bottom, reading magazines or doing puzzle games such as Sudoku. Although these are activities that I also enjoy all I wanted to do was get online. Doing such activities is nice to do but after doing this a few times a week or cutting internet time from your day your house can only get so clean, and there are only so many times you can read the same magazine. The internet is my prime source of information: the weather, the latest news, and communicating and when this was taken away I was lost, I then had to turn to other sources for information which I felt weren't as prompt and I often was waiting to get the information I wanted versus doing it at the click of a button. I believe that this experience was helpful to me because I realized how much I depend on technology to stay organized and how easy it could be to have that cut off for any amount of time (power outages, internet difficulties). I realized from this 24 hour internet abstinence that it would be more beneficial for me to also keep my plans in some type of planner as a back up to my cyberspace calendar. This will prevent me from having to use the internet for every little change in my schedule, and this will also help me communicate with my family, friends and work place over the phone or more often face-to-face compared to using more non-personal methods such as email or im. I realized that I rely too heavily on the web for my information and that I become more impatient with the world around me with the more time I spend on it. During the times of my mother growing up or my grandmother they did not have cell phones, ipods, or a computer not even thoughts of the internet. Older generations were more focused on the current taking time as what it is, and patience was not a hot commodity. Our world and my generation has become so dependent on things such as the internet and our cell phones that we feel "naked" without them, but maybe every now and then it is necessary to forget about the everyday rush and sit back for the ride. I think that we would have less stress and anxiety if we weren't so concerned with keeping our blackberries and iphones up to date. Patience is something we are losing as a society and I believe it is because we have all of this information at our fingertips at any given time. To challenge yourself to 24 hours of no internet or spending less time surfing the web daily takes us back to our foundation before we were so technologically dependent and impatient.
