My Experiment - an Internet Fast (1 Viewer)

[Isaac]

About 3+ weeks ago, I made a decision, at God's prompting I believe. I realized that reading Internet web pages was having a negative impact on my life.
My steady diet of reading news articles of all kinds, and the occasional foolishness on things like Bored Panda that pop up on my google homepage was not good for me. I wasn't handling it well, it was becoming all a bit too troubling and filling my mind with too much information that crowded out being able to hear from God and relate well to myself and others.

I decided to go on a 'fast' - not from food, but from all non-work webpages other than checking my Gmail or reading a Christian devotional or sermon.

The first couple days were hard, but I filled them with other stuff - reading really good, inspirational, helpful things. After a few days, it got easy--I was doing so much better!

After 3 weeks, I made an exception to visit AWF. Mostly just to make this post! Let me tell you, I am SO MUCH happier. I haven't read a news headline or article in 3 weeks. My family told me about Turkey/Syria, for which I prayed, but I didn't read all the stuff that was filling my head. I've heard about Chinese spy balloons and multiple hazardous train derailments, which worried me--and reminded me why I didn't need to do the reading myself. I told my son, when it's time to pack the car and head for "the hills", let me know

I am so happy with my decision.

I encourage you, if there is some part of your life that is troubling you and you are "feeding" it in an unhealthy, addictive, obsessive way, and it's causing you a lot more trouble than it is worth--and as long as there is not some other commitment in play of course, like marriage/parenting/promises made--then cut it off and be free for a while! I've learned so much and felt so close to God and others (real people not online, no offense ha ha!). These 3 weeks have been more valuable to me than 3 years of reading/knowledge.

 

[Jon]

This is very much in alignment with a book I have started reading, something I mentioned on the forums before. It is called "Digital Minimalism" by Carl Newport. He also did a very popular book callled "Deep Work". It talks about cutting out all the digital content, and then coming back to it a month later. Then you can assess what you like and what you don't rather than just being addicted to it all.

Amazon.com: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World: 9780525536512: Newport, Cal: Books

Amazon.com: Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World: 9780525536512: Newport, Cal: Books

www.amazon.com

 

[Pat Hartman]

@Issac while I understand your withdrawal, I don't believe withdrawing from news is a rational solution. The reason the US is in such a pickle is because too many people have abdicated their civic responsibility to know what their government is doing with the money the government takes from us at gunpoint every year. If you don't know what the people you elected (by voting or not voting) are actually doing, how will you ever know who to vote for when the next election comes around? Sticking your head in the sand just leaves your you-know-what sticking up in the air.

I do agree with avoiding social media because there you are getting a lot of noise and meaningless opinion. Who the hell cares what the Kardashians think or the "ladies" of the View? They are blaming Trump for the recent derailment and chemical burnoff that spread the chemicals into states to the East and saying it is the fault of the people in East Palestine's fault because they voted for Trump which is pretty hateful if you ask me.

When I hear such hate in how it portrays people with opposing opinions, I know that I am not hearing "news". I am hearing opinion and I know I can safely ignore the comments.

It is important to get your news from multiple outlets so you have a shot at figuring out what the "truth" might be. Reading the same "news" article from different outlets can be a huge eye-opener and eventually, you learn who you can trust to present the least biased version of a story. Rarely do you see actual lies. Most of the bias is through omission of facts and omission of stories. The left is more guilty of the "omission of stories" tactic. If they don't like the story because it portrays them in a bad light, they just don't cover it. Kinda' like your head in the sand solution.

 

[Isaac]

@Issac while I understand your withdrawal, I don't believe withdrawing from news is a rational solution. The reason the US is in such a pickle is because too many people have abdicated their civic responsibility to know what their government is doing with the money the government takes from us at gunpoint every year. If you don't know what the people you elected (by voting or not voting) are actually doing, how will you ever know who to vote for when the next election comes around? Sticking your head in the sand just leaves your you-know-what sticking up in the air.

I do agree with avoiding social media because there you are getting a lot of noise and meaningless opinion. Who the hell cares what the Kardashians think or the "ladies" of the View? They are blaming Trump for the recent derailment and chemical burnoff that spread the chemicals into states to the East and saying it is the fault of the people in East Palestine's fault because they voted for Trump which is pretty hateful if you ask me.

When I hear such hate in how it portrays people with opposing opinions, I know that I am not hearing "news". I am hearing opinion and I know I can safely ignore the comments.

It is important to get your news from multiple outlets so you have a shot at figuring out what the "truth" might be. Reading the same "news" article from different outlets can be a huge eye-opener and eventually, you learn who you can trust to present the least biased version of a story. Rarely do you see actual lies. Most of the bias is through omission of facts and omission of stories. The left is more guilty of the "omission of stories" tactic. If they don't like the story because it portrays them in a bad light, they just don't cover it. Kinda' like your head in the sand solution.

Well I completely agree with pretty much everything you said.

I'm fairly sure that what I'm doing will only need to be temporary. I had to do this to restore peace and balance to my mind focus and attitudes and allow space for other things.

At some point I'll sense in my heart that this season is over and I can go back to ingesting a reasonable quantity of news. It's just for the time being to take care of myself.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'll be withdrawing from the web for a while Tuesday (5/16) because in the morning (Central Time) we get our new whole-house generator. We'll be without power for a few hours while the installers take out the old panel, put in a new one that can accommodate a T-switch, get it all re-inspected, and let the juice flow. I'll be saving the power on my cell phone until I can recharge it again so like it or not, I will not be doing very much in the way of web-crawling.

 

[Isaac]

Wow that sounds like a good, peace-of-mind type purchase, glad you were able to get it. hopefully it gives that peace and helps out during the next potential crazy weather.

 

[NauticalGent]

we get our new whole-house generator.

Generac? That is what we have.

Wow that sounds like a good, peace-of-mind type purchase, glad you were able to get it. hopefully it gives that peace and helps out during the next potential crazy weather.

It is indeed - however, since I had it put it, the ONLY use it gets is when it exercises every Saturday morning...

 

[Isaac]

makes sense you have to run it now and then.

remember the days of dad Warming up the Car? and "never drive away until it has ran for3 minutes".

not having lived in cold weather since 2007, and with newer cars, i'm not sure if anyone does that any more?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

@NauticalGent
We compared brands. Generac was the closest fit. Kohler and Honeywell each had problems for large houses. For reasons too complex to explain, we have three refrigerator/freezers to go with upstairs and downstairs A/C compressors. The other stuff is mostly lights, computers, and TVs. The two other brands I named have great reputations, but once you go above a certain KW demand potential they switch you to their commercial-grade lines, which adds 30% or more to the cost. So... Generac it is.

We are currently waiting for the gas line inspector because this one is run by natural gas. So we have yet to fire it up. However, the inspection isthe hold-up right now. After that, they will cover up the trenches used for the underground gas connection and will send out their "startup team" so we can do the burn-in and learn the maintenance tricks.