Connectivity Obsessions

Although I write this blog for your benefit, I benefit from it, too:

• Writing articles helps me clarify my thinking on subjects that are of interest to me.
• It gives me an occasional opportunity to publicly preach to myself. On these occasions, when I put my bad habits on public display, I become more determined to overcome those habits.

Today’s article is one of those that fits the preaching-to-me category. So, I am donning my preaching attire, hoping that I can talk some sense into myself. Perhaps you will find that you are committing the same sins, and maybe you can learn from this sermon as well.

Here’s my confession: I am too addicted to being connected to the internet. That includes web sites in general, email (on my computer and my BlackBerry and iPod Touch), Twitter (on my computer and iPod Touch), and so on. The price I pay for this “sin” is that I waste far too much time connecting and worrying about connecting. I could, and should, make a lot better use of a good bit of this time.

The guilt of this really hit home with me this Wednesday. I met with several of my former coworkers, some of my dearest friends, for lunch. On the drive there I wondered what email was coming in over my BlackBerry. After parking, and before walking to the restaurant, I checked my mail and read through it all quickly (and deleted most of it, because it was junk). For a while, say the first 10 minutes of the lunch, I felt uncomfortable that I hadn’t checked my mail since I walked into the restaurant. Fortunately, after that, I settled into the discussions with my friends, forgot all about the stupid email, and had a wonderful time.

But, as I thought about this later that day, it just annoyed the hell out of me that I had let myself get this way. When I am setting on the couch, there is seldom of a period of 10 minutes that goes by without me grabbing my iPod Touch and checking email and Twitter.

I don’t know if any of you believe in Synchronicity. I don’t know if I do. But, it is amazing that Wednesday evening Thomas sent me an email with some links addressing just this sort of obsession. I read the articles he linked to, and, sure enough, I am not alone in my connectivity obsession. Oh, I already knew I wasn’t. I have memories of several of my friends checking their BlackBerry’s ever so often. That’s why BB’s are called CrackBerries, after all.

But, I want to do something about this. I don’t like being this way. In my case, the root cause is probably restlessness. I have been a restless soul almost all of my life. I was not that way in childhood. But, somewhere along the way, probably in my late teens, I became a restless soul: always having to be about the business of doing something.

So, in my case, I am not likely to solve the connectivity obsession until I solve the problem of being a restless soul. So maybe, now that I am approaching the age of 59, it is time for me to tackle this problem.

Some would say, of course, that it doesn’t really matter at my age. What’s the point of changing, they would say. Maybe they have a point, although I want to change, so that makes it worth doing.

But, many of you are a good bit younger than me, and undoubtedly overcoming a connectivity obsession could make a big difference in your lives.

What do you think?