So, as I am a catholic, I am (at least nominally) required to give something up for the forty days before Easter, also known as Lent. So, it came down to 11:00 or so on the night of Fat Tuesday, and i still hadn’t come up with anything. A few minutes after this thought floated on through my head, I thought about precisely how much time I wasted dicking around on the Internet. And thus, an Idea was born. Fairly quickly I realized it was pretty much impossible to avoid it completely in this day and age, so I revised my proscription to what I deem the Big 3 (twitter, Facebook, and IRC). So, about halfway through now, I’ve decided to post my findings.
1) I’m reading a LOT more. I’ve read more books in the past three weeks than I have in most of the past year.
2) I spend less time on the Internet in general. While I haven’t completely stopped Internet-dicking-about, it’s reduced to reading technology blogs.
3) I’m reading far less webcomics, which is a combination of several things, but partially due to the lack of comic-related chatter on IRC.
4) My grades have not significantly improved. This further supports my conclusion that teenagers will find ways to procrastinate, even without the major time-wasters on the internet.
5) I don’t suck at StarCraft anymore. This could be related, or it could not be. However, it is something I have realized as the days have gone by.
In light of all this, I don’t think I’ll be staying away permanently. i would guess I’ll spend less time on facebook,at least in the time immediately following Easter, but I get the feeling I’ll still spend hours on IRC as soon as I’m able to.
I was wondering where you disappeared to. I like that you included the timewasters of the internets, but not of computers in general. 😛
I like dem vidya games too much to give up computers entirely.
Is that where you’ve been? I’ve been asking everyone! Well glad to see you’re still alive, young man, and good on you for giving up the big 3 for Lent. We’ll be happy when you’ve come back to us.