How to dance in the ether without setting your shoes on fire

How to dance in the ether without setting your shoes on fire

No one likes immolation of any kind. Whether self-inflicted or ether-inflicted.

What follows are my guidelines for a saner experience in the ether. But if you like the caffeine-edged, can’t get information fast enough, I’m a junkie for needing to be needed in the ether because my personal life sucks or is insufficient – then this blog isn’t for you.

1st Line of Defense: Mobile Phones

Alas, I now have to buy a new mobile because my 3G is so old it will no longer work come January 2020. But hanging out with the one I have, I have learned a few things:

• I leave the mobile in another room unless I want more environmental radiation in my body.

• I turn off the ringer – unless I’m on a Death Watch, nothing is that important. But if it is, then I judiciously check my mobile.

2nd Line of Defense: Computers

• I turn off the ringer. I don’t need to be zinged to tell me I’m on someone’s radar screen. It’s usually spam anyway, isn’t it? Besides, I don’t enjoy the “shock” my body feels every time I hear that zing, let alone the panic or concern – should I look at that? Does it require my attention? No, because I’m the adult in the room.

• I set a timer by the computer. Seriously. And guess what? I accomplish more because I hear the timer ticking, and it spurs me to stay focused. I’m a Type A personality, so the more I check off my list, the better.

• I don’t care how many hyperlinks there are in an email. Or a website. I’m disciplining myself to read the bloody email first and focus, so I’m clear about what I’m doing; then I attend to the hyperlink.

• I follow one story, or do one task at a time. I’m disciplining myself because the plethora of information is seductive – and truth, to be told – I’d rather be seduced by a human, not a machine.

• I read books. Not e-books. I savor turning pages I can feel, immersing myself in a story, not being distracted by all the hyperlinks and whatnot that come with e-books. Give me a book book. Lock me in a Library overnight. At present, I’m making my way through Pulitzer Prize novels; I’m up to the year 1965.

• I limit my time on social media. I don’t need to be attached by an umbilical to SM. I am self-sufficient. I use SM and the Internet as a way to see what’s going on in that world. And, like the time I limit myself to when food shopping, and, like a special op team sent in to retrieve the asset, I’m in and out no more than I need to be. There’s a world outside my window, and I seek the balance between inner and outer.

• One benefit of slowing down – if I find something I like, I immediately bookmark it. This focus means I don’t have to store in my brain how many clicks back it was OR will I find something more interesting further down Hyperlink Lane? I can always clean up my bookmarks later.

I strengthen my attention muscles when I follow these guidelines because I can feel the difference in my being when I don’t multi-task. I am not, as the computer, in the business of distraction.

POSTSCRIPT: My computer is 10 years old. I don’t buy new just because new is in. The two reasons I have to get a new computer is because Windows 7 will no longer be supported come January 2020, and, as I have a 120 Hour TEFL [Teaching English as a Foreign Language] Certificate, there are a handful of higher paying companies that require more robust computer specs than my present ThinkPad can handle.