Insights From a Month Off The Grid

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Bruce Keener

This post discusses what I learned from my decision to take a month off from this blog and from using Google Reader and Twitter.

The bottom line: I feel almost human again. After the first week away from Google Reader (GR), Twitter, and writing on this blog, I began to feel a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt in long time. I no longer felt owned by the web. And, I really didn’t feel as if I were missing anything, either.

However, over the course of the month, I did not achieve the level of peace that I had hoped for. Part of that is because I replaced the habit of frequently checking GR and Twitter with the habit of regularly checking the forums of a guitarist association. I had posted some comments and tunes on those forums and regularly checked for responses.

I think this was mostly filling my “Twitter gap,” a gap created by having less attention paid to me by my not using Twitter. Right before writing this post, I spent about 10 minutes looking over Twitter, and it was obvious that so many of the tweets are made because someone is trying to get attention. Perhaps they are not consciously trying to do so, but they are truly using Twitter to satisfy a need for attention. Once I realized that I had been trying to fill a need for attention, I backed off on the use of the guitarist forums, too. I use them still, but am trying to use them more wisely.

As I thought more about this, I also realized that we often replace one habit with another, or one set of habits with another set of habits. This insight is one I first had when reading Albert Camus’ The Plague, which I decided to read based on Jim Collins’ recommended reading list. One of the key impacts of Camus’ plague (aside from massive death, of course) was that it changed people’s habits. They did not necessarily live any more purposively or decisively than before the plague: they just changed from living out one set of habits to living with another set of habits. Their whole lives were built around habits.

Thinking this through made me see that I have been living much of my retirement life just going through a set of habits. And, I had let the set of habits grow to fill my time, so that I was leaving little time to Think and To Live Purposively and Decisively.

Having realized this, I am making some progress on doing away with habits that just waste time (or that just fill time). It’s not easy to completely redesign a life, and I don’t expect to do a complete redesign. But, I need to do more than little tweaks.

So, What Now?

I have decided that I will not completely stop blogging. But, I doubt that I will post more than once a month, and it could even be less often than that.

I will go back to using Google Reader, but I am going to trim the number of feeds down to about 10 or so. A feed reader is a good way to keep up with information, provided you don’t let it inhale so many feeds that you wind up with more noise than information.

I am undecided on Twitter. Guess I’ll keep my account, and may check in on it from time to time, but it seems like such a waste to me. I know good info gets put on it … I’ve benefitted from some of that. It sure is noisy, though. I really haven’t missed it, if that tells you anything.

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  • Torsten

    I’ happy you are back and keeping the blog. I never tried Twitter, but I always had the feeling it’s a waste of time

  • Ellen

    Really glad to see you back. I hope you’ll at least keep blogging. I enjoy your tweets but I’ll be happy to just stop by your blog to keep up on what you’re doing.
    Ellen/hikerpa on twitter

  • John

    I’m with you, Bruce. I also found I spent too much time on the web (Google Reader, drum forums). Instead of stopping everything, these are how I’ve been tackling the issue:

    - I realised me checking drum forums compulsively because I was trying to avoid doing things that required effort and concentration. So, the problem I have to tackle isn’t that much about viewing the forums, but more about why I procrastinate on more important things. I think I need to make sure I have a weekly perspective, a weekly planning.

    - I prune my Google Reader subscriptions from time to time. I ask myself if a thread adds value or it’s simply a time waster like watching TV.

    - I don’t follow facebook nor twitter. Just too much noise.

    - I don’t write public blog. But I have a private blog on which myself and my wife can share our thoughts. I also limit my contributions on the drum forums. I ask myself if my post adds value or it is just a chit-chat.

    I remember I read that to excel in one life one needs to stay in focus.

  • http://ruudhein.com Ruud Hein

    Very good to see you, Bruce.

    I’m just ending a 10 day sabbatical. Part vacation, big part catching up with work around the house; rebooting life.

    I began to feel a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt in long time

    *That* I recognize. But… drawing from some of my own reasons, I wonder if besides part withdrawal there’s also a part of something else at play. A shift in life focus? A decision you took or choice you made? A cycle that has come to its natural end? Chicken/egg: does the desire or choice to squelch some of these channels stem from such a change?

    And finally, I think the intention deficit I talked about earlier might come into play for us. The GTD-ish “what is this?” (processing) and “why are we doing this” (natural planning model).

    Applying those to your Twitter, for example, probably will show you how to use it when and with whom.

  • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

    Torsten, Ellen, John, Ruud
    Thank you for the comments.

    All my best
    Bruce

  • Karl Chu

    Glad you are back with your blog, Bruce.

    I also found that I need to pare down my “input streams” from time to time. I used Twitter (only as a follower) but ditched it within a month — far too interrupting, and thoughts are often random and very much incomplete; i.e. brain farts… pardon the expression ;-)

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Karl … I have enough brain farts on my own, without adding those from others :)

      Twitter is interesting for a sense of community. But it is a noisy community. I can see why people get pulled into, as I was for a long while.

  • http://www.razorlip.com marcelino

    I have an account, but rarely pay much attention to it after someone friends me. I read their blog then that it, what’s the point of reading short url in my mind–yes a bit of self promotion all blogger do.

    However, I am addicted to my GR also, that is where all the blogs I read are stored, I went on a trip over the weekend, I had 246 unread posts, just can’t imagine how many newspapers that is? :(

    Hang in there, you will find your balance, and don’t give up writing to your blog!

    p.s. – found you in the thesis intro thread.

  • John

    Glad you are not completely giving up your blog. Though I don’t comment very often I read every entry. I also understand that you have to do what you have to do.

    As regards to twitter..meh. I don’t use or follow anybody on it. At least not right now.

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Thanks John.

      Note that Twitter is fine for a lot of people. For me it became way too much of distraction. One has to decide for oneself where one’s attention goes.

  • http://www.garotasemfio.com.br Bia Kunze

    I liked Twitter in the beggining, but today it’s just garbage. Pity. I still keep feeding my account with mobile tech thoughts and tips and check only mentions and directs. Timeline, never again.
    I schedule conversations when I want to Skype. I keep IM on just when I need some quick feedback and documents from colleagues – when it can be faster than emails. I twit when I have someting relevant to say. I use Twidget on my Mac dashboard: just a small space to post. No timeline. I check mentions 2 or 3 times a week only and directs come via email.
    Recently I spent 2 weeks in the hospital with some health issues and had all time available for… nothing. But I kept disconnected and chose the Kindle to stay with me. And now I understand how great is this device as a unitasker. Some people would like to get their Gmail and Twitter in their e-readers. I think they have lost their minds.
    Phone and SMS are winners, because it’s only for close friends and people you care.
    I am happy for being able to turn my cell phone on in the morning and off in the evening. It’s great to feel not guilty doing that.

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, Bia!
      Sorry you had to be hospitalized … I hope you recovering well.

      All my best
      Bruce

  • Alex

    That’s an interesting experiment, Bruce. Your observation of substitutional behavior is familiar to me. Around 80% of my patients which have managed to break free from heroin, used to promptly develop some addiction to energetic drinks, begin to literally live in the Internet, and started smoking tobacco almost twice as much as before. Without radical inner change of a worldview, they kept being addicts, no matter what they took. Looking for substitution is just a transitional stage in getting on the mend, after all. This behavior used to stop in several months (or years) after they would start to visit AA or NA groups, and work in 12 steps program. From my experience and knowledge, this program is a pinnacle of spiritual growth. Community support and live (not virtual) interaction with their fellow recovering addicts was crucial according to their reports. These people are coming out from the depth of hell to the light, and I have no reasons to question their experience. Bearing that in mind, I draw a parallel, and ask myself: are we becoming addicted to Internet technologies because of being lonely and emotionally deprivated? Looking for an easy way to socialize? Sadly, “easy way” would be the key words here, and this way seems but a substitute for real way.

    Me, I’ve cut it all down to a dozen of bookmarks in the browser, which I regularly visit to keep myself posted on the news. I’ve also worked out a habbit to listen to a couple of news radio stations while in the car. But I’ve rejected all Internet feeds, withdrawn from all network communities, and get used to thoroughly clean the inbox. Should I need something specific, I would use a search engine. No more twitting, no more blogging, no more persisting on various forums. I still hold a membership in a couple of interest clubs, yet mostly for occasional benefits than for heavy online interaction. The result? Yes, I do feel a characteristic emptiness sometimes. Something’s calling me from the inside, it wants me to bring more sense, and more liveliness into my life. Then I meet with my friends, or spend some time with my family, or just pray, or meditate, or do a regular reflection work in the diary. And here is the bottom line: I feel much better when facing my emptiness, and growing something alive in its place, than when filling it with all the informational junk which swarms the Internet. Some respected people say, that this emptiness is quite normal for a human being, and it’s probably nothing but a room for God. I wonder, in this crazy times we live in, is Internet becoming our God? And those endless gadgets would be his angels? Isn’t it disgusting? I’m not sure what’s happening to us, but it looks quite unsettling to me.

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Hi Alex,

      Thank you for taking the time to share your thinking, and to pose some interesting questions.

      I am spending a bit more time with friends and in social engagements, and find that this more than displaces the “satisfaction” I was getting from the social media and the constant influx of information. Like you, I see the internet activities as an attempt to fill some sort of hole that can only be filled by interacting with people … interestingly, it seems that it can only be satisfactorily by Real Engagement with Real People, face to face, and not via the webs.

      Is the internet becoming our God? Yes, I would say that for many it has taken the place of God. It is attempting to fill that “God-shaped hole” that exists within us. For me it became an inadequate god.

  • Alex

    I’m glad we share some understanding, Bruce. No web can replace real feelings thriving among real people. And it’s well said about a “God-shaped hole”, too.

    By the way, I used to play the guitar (mostly classic and flamenco) earlier. Until some moron have broken my left little finger in an incidental brawl some ten years ago. The fracture went right through the joint, and it never recovered well enough to play again. But I still remember how entertaining and fulfilling were these evenings with my fellow musicians, as we used to assemble into a small band and play whatever we like.

    Now I guess I grew older and fatter than ever. Heh, me and a couple of remaining friends now spend time in smoking pipes, sipping on beer, and exercising in rhetoric over politics, technology, women, each other, and life in general. And I must say, it’s a damn good way of spending time, sir. Internet goes to hell with all its craziness and loneliness under its hood. To me, it’s only an instrument for business (except for your fine blog and a couple more places, maybe).

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Sorry that “life got in the way” of you being able to play the guitar, Alex. But, it sounds like you are doing well bending elbows and neurons with friends.

      All my best
      Bruce

  • Gene Schmeling

    I’m glad you’ve decided to continue blogging. I always enjoy your perspective. I particularily like your thoughts on organizing one’s life using technology.

    I cut down the number of RSS feeds I read as well as the way that I read them. I follow a lot of gadget type blogs, but there is a lot of redundancy between them. Now, I generally just skim the headlines whereas before I would read (or at least open) each and every one of them. I have also found that if I don’t have the time or inclination to read them, I’ll just click the “Mark All as Read” choice.

    • http://www.keenerliving.com/ Bruce Keener

      Thanks Gene. Glad that you are finding a balance on the info-flow.

      Take care
      Bruce