Not literally. But I swear, I’m wasting my life away on the internet. Facebook is not the only timesink, though. From YouTube to Thought Catalog to Sound Cloud to 9gag to Netflix, the great majority of my time at home is spent on the internet. Only until recently did I noticed it was getting out of hand. I’m bored of the video games I have on my computer, there are no engaging conversations occurring on facebook, and I haven’t felt motivated to search for music or interesting stuff on YouTube, but for some reason I keep playing the same video games, I keep refreshing facebook, and I keep wandering around YouTube (first world problems).
It’s definitely not the internet’s fault; allow me to set that straight. The internet is a wonderful tool in which to keep one’s self occupied. Writing blogs such as this one allows me to speak my mind to the reader and also blogging gives me a place to archive any profound ideas I might come across. YouTube is an incredible website where amazing music, talent, educational content, etc. are all compiled into one location. Facebook and other social networking sites are very convenient ways to stay in touch with friends and family. Video games are a fun and therapeutic activity and if played online, can be a great way to spend time with friends. These are all good things in moderation; the key part being, “in moderation.” It’s my own lack of self-discipline that causes me to waste my time. The internet is an invaluable tool if used for good and if used in moderation.
Venting / beating myself up for wasting time is not my style though. The reason I wrote this is to propose a resolution to my predicament. Feel free to join me in this challenge. From now on I’d like to distribute my waking hours more productively so here’s a list of things to accomplish each day:
- Read something that isn’t from my computer screen. The Bible, a novel, a textbook, anything. Even as little as a paragraph will suffice.
- Do some kind of exercise. Parkour, bull fighting, or just push-ups and sit-ups in my room.
- Pet my cat. He loves that crap.
- Have a conversation with someone. Even if it’s awkward, at least I will get to spend quality time interacting with another human being.
- Clean something. Wash the dishes, make my bed, whatever.
- Pray / meditate. Must keep my spiritual game in check.
- Floss. This habit is hard for me to keep up. According to a conversation I had with my dentist, the gunk that sticks to your teeth throughout the day hardens within 24-48 hours to the point where you can not brush it or floss it off. It must be removed by scraping. Yeah, not having that.
That’s my list so far. I may add to this as time goes on, but this is definitely a good start. Anyone is welcome to join me, and any efforts to keep me on track with this is sincerely appreciated.
I am new to building sites and I was wondering if having your
site title related to your articles and other content really that important?
I notice your title, “The internet is literally killing me… | In Simplicity ” does seem
to be spot on with what your website is about but yet, I prefer to keep my title less content descriptive and
based more around site branding. Would you think this is a
good idea or bad idea? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Here’s my disclaimer: I’m no professional, so I’m speaking only from personal background and not from any other sources.
Personally, I like titles relevant to the content of the article rather than something vague (perhaps I misinterpreted what you meant by “site branding”). Keep in mind that this is a recreational blog and everything I write on it serves the purpose of exercising my creativity. I like to come up with clever titles because one, the title is an effective tool to pull a reader in from the start, and two, because I think it’s a fun practice and it allows me to express a tiny bit of my personality, even before a blog entry even begins.
Concerning the title of the entire site, “In Simplicity, Find Significance”, I’d like each one of my blog entries to tie into that somehow. Whether I write about a friend that’s changed my life, or whether I write about an observation of my internet activity, I want the main title of my blog to frame everything I put on my blog. Some connections between the main title and the content of a blog may be a stretch, but I keep the main theme of my blog in the back of my mind when I’m writing something or quoting something.
If I had to give you an answer, I’d say have your titles be more content descriptive. If people are reading a list of blog entry titles, they’ll gravitate towards the more creative, relevant or clever titles, resulting in more traffic on your site.