I’m taking a short break from most of the web and social media from February 13 – 23. I plan to share stuff, but I’ll be treating most websites as write-only. I’ll be working on Yeti at work (writing a lot of unit tests) and video editing at home (lots of Final Cut Pro projects), so I’ll continue to be quite busy. Email and bug reports are always open.
While I didn’t decide to do this myself, it’s timely. I’m distracted and controlled by an insatiable interest in what other folks create. I don’t use a feed reader and rarely find myself saving to Instapaper. My attention is divided between what I find important and Hacker News, The Verge, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. It has grown to become taxing.
The habits are hard to change, but I’m not doing it alone. My pastor, Jay Kim, has suggested spending a part of lent by taking a break from media, or a media fast.
Fasting reveals what controls us. Far too often, we self-medicate with movies, television, music, social media, etc. We spend too little time alone and unplugged.
I’ll still be busy, but I’ll be spending more time unplugged and undistracted by the noise of the web for a little bit. I hope to return better focused on what I find important. If you’re feeling the same way, consider taking the next week or so off media with me. You can email me if you don’t want to do it alone. Here’s to more time spent offline.