Let me tell you about my week offline! I learned a few things, some that surprised me. The first thing is that my body
needs exercise! I didn't exercise for about four days and I felt
terrible. My body got so sluggish. I need to treat my body like the temple that it is!
The second thing I learned is that
the internet and my artistic creativity do not seem to be directly in
correlation to one another. I thought that giving up all that internet
time would lend more time to create. But I have not done any art in the
past week. Surprisingly, I have written more. An unexpected result to
this experiment.
I also found that I did not miss Tumblr or Facebook
as much as I thought I would. People would often say things like "Did
you see this on facebook?" and I did not feel at all worried about
missing out on something. I felt free from it actually. Free from all the
keeping up that one does online, keeping up with friends' (often trivial)
updates on Facebook, keeping up with Blogger, and every single
picture posted on Tumblr. Not having to spend hours a day scrolling
through things was definitely freeing.
I did miss all the inspirational
blogs from Twitter though. And I missed having Youtube videos to watch
while I eat.
It has also made me realize that I have so many memberships on so many blogs! I don't want or need such a large internet presence! With my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr, and countless others all over the web, I can feel stretched too thin at times!
So, I suppose the greatest thing I
learned from my stint offline, is the freedom of letting go. Of letting
go of these false obligations to be in the know, to follow everyone's
minor whim and thought and action on Facebook, of being as cute and
funny as my favorite Youtubers, of reblogging the right balance of nerd
humor and artsy pictures, of reading all the blogs that pop up on
twitter, of seeing every artwork posted on Deviantart.
Because really,
following people and subscribing, adds this sense of obligation. And if
someone inspires you and you enjoy their work, then following can be a
great way to stay in touch with what they are doing, but it can go over
board when you are following many people across many social websites. It
weighs down your internet browsing experience and time. To get through
all the updates from those I am following all over the web, it usually
takes about two hours. Usually more.
But really, if I really am a fan of
one's work and want to keep up with them, I would be able to do it
without following their every move constantly. Because let's face it, if
you are a true fan of someone, you will think of them outside of the
internet, outside of your feed of them. And if they or their work is an
out of sight/out of mind scenario, then you probably are not passionate
enough about them to keep up the obligation of following them. If you
are a true fan of a band, artist, life coach, any kind of person in
general, you won't have to have a daily feed to keep your attention on
them, you will seek out news about them, and that is how you will keep
the gems and really focus on them. It's about quality over quantity.
Anywhom those are just my thoughts and such on my week offline. It was bittersweet. I will probably be doing them again when I am feeling overwhelmed by the internets! I hope you are all doing well and swell and merry! Also, here is some art that I made before going offline!
This one is probably my favorite artwork of mine to date!
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