{"id":629,"date":"2010-07-02T12:16:12","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T12:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/07\/a-vacation-from-the-net.html"},"modified":"2010-07-02T12:16:12","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T12:16:12","slug":"a-vacation-from-the-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/07\/a-vacation-from-the-net.html","title":{"rendered":"A vacation from the net"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every medium of communication has its strengths and weaknesses. &nbsp;Some of the strongest media have the greatest weaknesses. &nbsp;David Abram&#8217;s wonderful&nbsp;<i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Spell-Sensuous-Perception-Language-More-Than-Human\/dp\/0679776397\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1278087835&amp;sr=1-1\">The Spell of the Sensuous<\/a><\/i> makes a powerful, and for me convincing, case that literacy helped sever our awareness of the meaning and communication intrinsic to the natural world. &nbsp;Its gains were great, but so were its costs.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I have become increasingly disturbed by the amount of time I spend in front of this computer, caused partly but not entirely by this blog. &nbsp;There is something almost hypnotic about sitting in front of a screen, mouse in hand, examining the news and information that can so easily be brought up on the screen. &nbsp;It provides a &nbsp;sense of connection, and I think seeking connection is a defining part of our character as human beings.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I deliberately refrained from downloading computer games because I suspect that if Civilization or similar games were in my system, I&#8217;d play all the time. &nbsp;But even absent Civilization, computer reading seems to be taking up way too much time and also interfering with my ease of reading books. &nbsp;I seem to be reading books in ever smaller chunks at any given time.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Friends of mine describe roughly similar experiences and worries.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So starting tomorrow, Saturday, I am taking a day a week off from the internet. &nbsp;I might occasionally break down with one email scan a day, but I hope not. &nbsp;And that will be it. &nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every medium of communication has its strengths and weaknesses. &nbsp;Some of the strongest media have the greatest weaknesses. &nbsp;David Abram&#8217;s wonderful&nbsp;The Spell of the Sensuous makes a powerful, and for me convincing, case that literacy helped sever our awareness of the meaning and communication intrinsic to the natural world. &nbsp;Its gains were great, but so&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-science-and-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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