I’m terribly annoyed with myself this afternoon. I’ve just purchased a trendy (read: overpriced) Moleskin brand notebook at the Cincinnati airport because I could not quickly find any simple and cheap alternatives before we had to board our flight. I feel the fool for trading in twelve quality dollars for what should be a $1.29 notebook if I were buying it at any standard office supply store. The ridiculous pricing of these notebooks is not lost on the author of the cheeky “Stuff White People Like” franchise (which mostly pokes fun at middle class Anglos). He describes the enduring hipster affinity for them among the rest of the nonsensical trends of our culture. To read the description of the notebook listed on the promo sheet provided with the purchase you’d expect that writing in a Moleskin will elevate you to a higher spiritual plane. Pffft.
I wish I’d remembered to bring a notebook from home and then I’d not be faced with this choice of no notebook versus overpriced notebook. But bringing along paper and pen is not typical of me- I usually rely on my memory to capture the events of the day and then transcribe to my laptop each evening of a trip.
For this trip however I’ve left my laptop at home. Further I’ve left even my blackberry behind. My first untethered trip since I’ve owned a cell phone or laptop! Why: Since my new job does not require me to be on call during vacation (first job EVER that hasn’t) I’ve taken this opportunity to break my internet addiction. It’s become a real problem. I check my favorite internet sites (facebook, flyertalk, livejournal, dailymile, foxnews) and my email as soon as I wake up each morning- before I do anything else. I check email constantly during the day on my bb and facebook on every work break. A good solid hour goes to the internet every evening and it’s the last thing I do before bed.
I never even realized I was addicted until I read an article that reported on internet addiction in the USA and noted with great disdain how many people check email before even going to the bathroom in the morning. Guilty as charged, but so what? These are the kind of people the article alleges that cannot pull themselves away from the net for even a day. In an effort to prove the idiocy of such claims made by crank old technophobes I recently decided to step away from the internet for 24 hours. I failed. Miserably. Ahhhhh, the ding of new mail notifications are as intoxicating a drug as they were when Meg Ryan’s character expounded on the topic in the movie hit “You’ve Got Mail”. My longest stretch internet sober this week was less than an hour. An hour!
But you can’t expect the drunk to turn down temptation if he takes his liquor bottle with him now can you? And THAT’S why I’ve decided to leave my blackberry and laptop at home for 8 days of internet sobriety. It’s been a hard time of it my first day. My thoughts drift to check my email frequently and every time I observe something clever my fingers itch to post it on facebook or twitter. I’m hoping the withdrawal symptoms lessen as the trip continues.
And now I have to buy a watch at the airport because I’ve just realized I’ve no way to tell time without my blackberry. Gah.
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