Too Much is Never Enough

Am I spending too much time on the computer?

This thought occurred to me when I realized how much of my day revolves around the laptop. I begin my day eating breakfast at the table and use my laptop to check email, check Facebook, and read a few news sites. Then I go to work, where I sit in front of a laptop all day. After work, I go downstairs to my little office to my little laptop to check email, check Facebook, and catch up with Rhett & Link before all the evening activities begin. After all the evening activities are concluded, I'm back on my laptop to check work email (since I'm working with folks from India) and doing a bit of writing before bedtime.

So all day long I'm going from bed to breakfast [laptop] to work [laptop] to home [laptop] to evening activities [not laptop] to pre-bed [laptop] and then to bed again.

What kind of life is that?

It must be said that a lot of my "home" work needs to be done on the computer. There is email and banking and writing and electronics design and all sorts of other tasks/hobbies which require the use of a computer / laptop these days; but at what point does it become such an inseperable part of life? At what point do we become incapable of "un-plugging"?

Then there's the effect on the children.

How effective is it to say to the children, "You've spent too much time on the computer, playing those games and/or watching those vidoes" when their perception of us is centered around our apparent dependency on our own electronic devices?

Notwithstanding the fact that we, as adults, generally have more discernment and discipline to limit the amount of time we spend on frivolous activities - that is, our time on the computer or Internet is productive^[1] - what is a child to think? In naive terms, we tell them to keep their own computer time to a minimum while we get to spend all the time we want.

It comes across as extremely unfair, even hypocritical.

Would that be tolerated in other circumstances?

Say, for example, that you are always harping on your children to keep their rooms clean, yet yours is a mess.

Or telling the children that they shouldn't be snacking between meals - especially on junk food! - yet they always see you popping a candy in your mouth.

Or telling them that they should always get their chores and homework done before playtime, yet you haven't managed to get around to changing the oil in the car like you promised your spouse.

Consider how much influence you would have on your children were they to perceive your actions as hypocritical.

Can you say "none"?

I don't have a solution yet. It occurred to me that we could perhaps set aside a small window of time during the weekdays for Internet activities, say a couple of hours each evening after dinner. Or perhaps a couple of hours before dinner. With no access allowed at any other time. For anyone. Including me.

But that causes all sorts of problems. I'd have to make so many exceptions for the times when we need to go online to research information, or when the kids are working on projects that require on-line access. The Internet is meant to be ubiquitous, always there, like a reference book on a library shelf, not turned on and off like a switch.

So much of life is now tied to the Internet. And it's kind of scary. I don't want to become Luddites, but neither do want to be so locked-and-linked that I'm unable to function without it when the power goes out.

What do you think? Is it possible to shake this addiction? Can I survive for a week without checking out CNN? Or Slashdot? Or Facebook? Can I even make it through an entire evening without turning on my laptop?

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^[1]Mostly.