Usually I wake up each morning, say hi to my wife and Adina and grab my phone to check the latest news. I do need to keep track of what is going on in the digital world to a certain extent; however, when it comes to politics, israel & the middle east or especially sports & entertainment related news… I’m starting to question what benefit (if not detriment) there is to doing this.
Recently, a friend of mine asked me to give him a tour of android. I hadn’t looked so objectively at my use of it until I sat down with him and went through my “favorite” apps and uses. To be totally honest I don’t waste a ton of time on my phone and this isn’t a major revolution for me but I am starting to figure out the appropriate balance between where technology assists me and where it distracts me
Starting tonight I’m unfollowing a bunch of twitter news sources and am going to avoid jumping on google news for random snippits of what the rest of the world is seeing as top news on tv etc… and I’ll try to use that time either truly productively or at least in a way that revitalizes me.
One example I felt especially well today, watching the e3 video game conference, was related to my down time. I got rid of a bunch of violent/untznius games because I didn’t want to have them around anymore and then held on to the ones that were okay. Obviously, video games are not the best use of ones time. But looking at the past three months of middle east related tweets, reading jpost and other news and peoples comments on that news, refreshing google news to see what people are talking about…. I would have been 100% better off playing a game that I know is a waste of time… but that is fun and gives me energy… vs wasting my emotional energy on topics I have very little influence on.
Is all of this justification for me to eventually buy a kinect for xbox 360 that will have some caloric burning value but be mostly for fulfilling my desire to have incredible digital experiences? Probably… but I think I’m ok with that if it means less brain juice spent on politics and maybe some more control over what I see.
