Skip to main content

Distracted

Technology, especially the computer and Internet, have greatly improved my life. It has become so much a part of my day-to-day that I don't really even think about how much my life is enhanced and improved by the Internet. I believe this is likely true for all of you out there in cyberworld as well.

There is a downside I've been thinking a lot about recently. Distraction.
I am like a school kid with ADD when I come to my computer in the morning. I want to stay on task, I really do but the Internet is ripe with tempting diversions.

This morning for instance, I went online to check my email and Facebook. I went to Facebook where a friend posted a funny video that leads me to You Tube where I get lost amongst similar gems. After several minutes - maybe 20 or 30 - I remember to check my email and log onto my home page where OOOO look, look over here on my home page there is a link to the NPR story I only got a chance to hear the end of yesterday, now I can listen to the whole thing. It's a story about a book I was curious about, so I go to Amazon to search for the book and Amazon conveniently has listed some of their suggestions which includes the book I was curious about and others I had yet heard about, so I start to click on the books and learn more. I put them in the Wish List and then see that Amazon has started this Universal Wish List - which means I can add items from almost any other site to my Amazon list. Well, heck, I have to give that a try. So I go to J Jill and find that I can use the Amazon feature with J Jill! I'm so thrilled that I start looking - and I'll be darned but there's a huge, huge sale with free shipping and 15% off my entire purchase. Well, I didn't really need anything but heck such a deal.

After a few moments, I wonder why I'm shopping on J Jill and remember that I don't need anything. Wasn't it that Dave Ramsey book I read parts of that talked about scaling back and only getting what you need? I can't recall, so I go back to Amazon to check if that's the book and remember my reason for going to the J Jill site. But I cannot remember what brought me originally to the Amazon site. I look through that site's wish list and see the book I heard about on NPR! I better order that, I think, before I forget again. Now what was that other book or author I came to Amazon for?

I can't recall so I go back to my email account. There is an email from a teacher that reminds me I need to log on to the school site to check grades. For both schools - different districts.  By the time I'm done with that, I see that I have now spent 90 minutes on the computer and haven't completed one thing I needed to complete. Which was???

From now on, before I sit down in front of this attention-grabbing-distraction-causing technological wonder, I will have to make a to-do list. Or I'll never get anything done!

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train

While getting an MRI recently, I selected to listen to a classic rock station. Actually I requested a station that played 70s or 80s music and the tech asked if I wanted pop or rock. "Well, classic rock would probably be better since I have to hold still," I responded. "If I listened to pop, I'd want to be dancing." And so I laid perfectly still while listening (or kind of listening since really in an MRI you never really drown out the loud bangs, whirs and booms). And it came to pass that the song "Crazy Train" started playing and I started to silently and stillfully laugh to myself. What a strangely perfect song for this moment in my life. Ozzy Osbourne was singing my song (has anyone ever really said that ever before???)! "I'm going off the rails on a crazy train," he sings/screams. (and a bunch of other lyrics I didn't understand because well, I was in an MRI and he was kind of screaming) You see the reason was that the MR...
Post a Comment
Read more

When you encounter a totally different reality

John and I arrived early for an appointment (for those of you that know my husband, you know that this is not infrequent! The story of arriving three hours early for a flight to Phoenix from Midway still gets repeated and laughed about when the 'kids' get together). We found a seat and the waiting room began to fill. We had chosen seats away from the TV where NBC's Today Show was playing, so we couldn't see what was on the screen. Another couple sat before the TV and provided commentary and as the time progressed provided a glimpse into a total different 'reality'. "Oh I can't even stand to look at him. He's so evil" "What is wrong with his hair?" "This administration will do down in history as the worst ever." "The federal government is taking over the states. There's going to be a civil war, just you wait." "They just let all those illegal aliens in and then they're going to give them weapons to take...
1 comment
Read more

I had to use a calculator

I have been living with MS since 1992 - I used the calculator on my phone to determine that it's 29 years (because unlike the man pictured above my math skills are lacking). That's a long time and you don't need to be mathematically inclined to come to that conclusion. And when first diagnosed, my neurologist declared that with all the research he believed a cure was imminent likely 'within five years'. that would mean that we would have had the cure 24 years ago. We don't. So I am grateful I didn't wager any money on Dr. Wiley's prediction.  But what we do have, instead of a cure, is a plethora of pharmaceuticals to help stem this disease's progression and help us live fuller lives, longer. I am happy for that but am also curious and a tad skeptical because these drugs cost a person living with MS a lot of money and pharma has no financial incentive to search for the cure when they can keep us living less gimpy lives for many years reliant on their ...
Post a Comment
Read more