HOPELESS ADDICT?

I admit, I'm a junkie. An addict who suffers withdrawal after 3 days.

Three fateful days ago, I got unplugged. Unplugged from my blogging, disconnected from my facebook community of friends, shut out of my email. My hard drive crashed.

Why is it that we are so dependant on our computers? It's more than entertainment these days, it's calendar schedules, record keeping, a dictionary, phone book, map, you name it. It's quite amazing really how something that saves you SO much time, sucks up so much more. How is that true?

Instead of facebooking through the mid-day naps, I oiled my wood furniture. I kid you not. Instead of looking up a recipe online and likely getting distracted by some other article, I mopped the floor while cooking dinner. Instead of obsessing over getting the highest Bejeweled score after the kids conked out, I actually had a phone conversation and then went to bed. Early.

I do love the ease and convenience of a computer, but sometimes I wish I was less plugged-in. And I know I do it to myself, but the social pressure to keep up cannot be ignored. Maybe not-so-surprisingly I "socialize" with more people on Facebook now than I ever had before signing up. But I feel like we've created fast-food friendships. These people don't really know me. They don't know my middle name, or why I named my son the way I did. Many have never been to my house.

For all those hours I spend Facebooking, only 2 noticed my lack of activity. I might as well have been out of town.

Now that I have my computer back, I'm eager to catch up on emails and reconnect to my fb circle, but I feel less enthusiastic about it now. Having never been the biggest fan of social-networking sites to begin with, this was a good reminder after getting momentarily carried away. With the return of beautiful sunny days, you can count on seeing me less anyway.