Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: hyperlinks

I got overdosed.

HISTORY

  • I used to list down my agenda before I go to the Internet shop.
  • I didn't have my own internet connection until last semester.
  • I managed to be productive in an hour or so of staying in an Internet shop.

COMPLAINTS

  • Waiting in line in those computer shops again
  • My flash disk always getting infected by NewFolder.exe, Funny UST Scandal.exe, or ravmon.exe
  • Too limited time to work on my research or home works
  • No extra time for an online job, ergo, no chance to amass MONEY MONEY MONEY
  • Incomplete productivity

MEDICATION: Broadband installation at home

PSYCHOSOCIAL REACTIONS

1) I-can’t-work-with-all-these-distractions effect

Do not get me wrong. I do enjoy chatting with my friends because it actually de-stresses, not distracts, me. But the fact that the list of the things that you can do online is almost endless, my distractions also became endless. When a distraction is just a click away (or when it conveniently presents itself to you), how can you ever run away from it?

2. I-am-a-busy-bee-do-not-talk-to-me-world effect

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Whenever my mom sees all these opened windows in White Winona's desktop, she would often conclude that I am in engaged in an online meeting with my group mates and for that I must not be disturbed. Well for one, she is not always right. But I never bothered to correct her. And I bet I am not the only guilty person here. With all those must-be-explored sites, must-be-read contents, must-be-tried-apps, I can spend the entire day just tinkering with my laptop. I can also fool myself (and the people who look at my desktop) to believing that I am a master of productivity with all those sticky notes found all over my desktop. But the truth is they are just there and they can stay there for as long as they want. See the fall sense of busy-ness AND productivity there? So at the end of the day, I will be an exhausted person (with strained eyes, back, and neck) and unupdated daughter/sister/niece/granddaughter who, in fact, did not really learn much but gossips and did not really accomplish much but page-hop.

3. I-might-be-missing-out-on-something-somewhere effect

The idea that conversations done online serve to supplement (or complement) whatever talks I have (or just had) with my friends, my family, classmates, colleagues, and others face-to-face, I feel the need to be always visible. You know the feeling when it’s been 24 hours and you haven’t logged in any of your SNS or YM accounts, like you are missing half of your life by not doing so? So you make yourself accessible online, with an attempt to shun distracters by appending that Busy icon. Well obviously, you can't expect the trick to always work. And for fear that I'm  missing something online, I realized that there are far more important things in the REAL WORLD that I'm actually missing.

4. I-feel-like-saying-something-to-you-but-you-must-not-or-cannot-know-so-I-will-be-purposely-vague effect

Ironically, inasmuch as people are actually enjoying the idea of sharing bits of their lives (in their blogs, twits, shoutouts, statuses, etc) for the world to see, most of these I find superficial. If there were any that really mirrored what a person is going through (raw emotions and all that), the entry would be rather vague to protect some identities. I did that one too many times already. But while it can be therapeutic, it can actually feel pointless at times because at the end of it, you never really got your message across that person/thing/whatever. Apparently, the more freedom (and avenues) that I get to express what I feel/think/see, the more cautious I become, to the point of being ambiguous.

RECOMMENDATIONS

So how will a person like me combat all these seemingly negative effects of the medication that I thought will make me a healthy, productive individual? I will use two antidotes starting today.

  1. Create/Revive my personal dashboard (a really good prescription from barrycade). Selective exposure is totally the key because hyperlinks are obviously everywhere. To avoid being pointed to all those different (unnecessary) directions, I shall first expose myself to things that REALLY need my attention. This may seem too limiting but if I ever get idle, I would definitely love to explore sites outside my pseudo-bordered world.
  2. Stay invisible when I do not have any business online. Out of respect (if not need for gossip), I always entertain friends (not just random strangers) who talk to me online, but my work gets compromised. If someone really needs me, there are so many ways to contact me (leave an offline message, text, call, email) without me being pressured to set aside whatever tasks I have at hand.

Do you have any other recommendations?  

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