I have been sitting here, in front of my computer, for most of the day. Oh, sure, I’ve driven to work and back and played with the dogs. But I am slave to my computer. My game systems. My iPhone. Anything with a glowing screen and buttons. It has come to a point where I’ve almost forgotten what life was like prior to all these technological marvels.
And it saddens me.
There was a time when I was hip to all the latest gadgets and games and technology. I was so deep into the IT world that there wasn’t a day that I didn’t have some magazine around the house – Information Week, eWeek, CIO, PC Magazine, Database Advisor, Linux World, etc. – open to a page that I was either glancing because it tickled my fancy or that piqued my interest and I had to devour it. I was, at one point, a walking-talking fountain of useless knowledge about the tech industry. Then came the information overload.
Most of the magazines I read helped to curb my enthusiasm. I had to physically wait a month before getting my techno fix and then I would go out and drop $200+ on magazines again. Unfortunately, over the past two years I’ve been strung out on websites. Websites with news, code, gossip, forums, pictures, videos, social networks, blogs, opinions. The list goes on and on and on. And I think I need to stop.
One of my biggest hang ups has been that I rarely get ‘enough’ sleep. My reasoning was that there is always something going on in the world and I don’t want to miss out on it. But now it is much worse than cable news channels. Now it is emails, RSS feeds, SMS messages, GPS aware apps that show me local news and events. Where does it end? Or better yet:
When does it end?
It doesn’t. I think that by realizing that I have this information addiction I have taken the first few steps in finding out how to disassociate myself from it and learn how to capture my life before all the techno-wizardry. I should be able to finally break free from the glow of the television and the iPhone and the computer and enjoy LIVING. Untethered. Blissfully ignorant of the deluge of news and events that constantly happens regardless of whether I live or die. I can be normal again…
…right after this game of Soul Calibur IV. I’ll look it up on WikiPedia.