First I have to apologise for the tardy updates on my blog. It has been almost two weeks since my last post, and I do have tonnes of topics that I wanted to talk about.
However, time wasn’t on my side. Creating that half an hour or more each day to blog will mean doing less of something else. Other than working (which gobbles up huge amounts of energy, brain juices, and time), I have been exercising a lot harder and more regularly than before. It does help to take away stress for sure.
In the age of social media, I don’t think being able to communicate with a thousand different folks simultaneously on multiple channels is going to be the Piece De Resistance of what its all about. Sure, you can twitter somebody here, SMS a buddy there, chat on MSN, email an associate, put up a blogpost, give somebody a tequila on facebook and so on. It is fun to be connected, to be the nexus of attention amongst hundreds of Friendsters. To be seen as part of the scene, the cool crowd, the hip and happening uber geeks flashing their iPhones.
Unfortunately, while engaging in these activities, I may have missed out on the important moments in my life that I may regret later. For example, seeing my four and a half year old boy grow up incredibly fast, chatting with the love of my life (my wife), breaking personal records in physical endeavours, and reading a great book. Enjoying a walk in the park, smelling the flowers, exploring new places to go to.
Of course, I can blog about all this. And I do intend to, moving ahead. However, for now, what I need to do is to catch my breath first. And slowly, breathe in, breathe out, and celebrate life.
Oh well. Just decided to rant for a bit. Do you ever experience such a phenomenon? Have you ever wanted to just be unplugged from the greater world, to recoil into your little sanctuary of solitude?
hey i really feel what you are saying. despite the advance in communication, i wonder are we better off in building better quality relationship.
For me, i even find hard to have a family meal together and i think no amount of msn or poking on facebook is going to change that.
http://tinyenterprise.blogspot.com/2008/06/absence-makes-heart-grows-fonder.html
I take a no-email/no-laptop weekend every so often. Haven’t done the no-mobile phone weekend yet — disconnecting from the internet seems to provide enough of a restorative.
As long as blogging isn’t what pays the bills though, I don’t think you need to apologise for not blogging because you were busy, you know, life!
I’m 100% with you here. It’s ironic that with all these social and interactive tools online these days (Twitter, Facebook, blogs) that bridge the distance between people (and they really do), they also widen the distance between us and our loved ones in real life.
I have dedicated much of the past 6 years to my blog, but some days I simply decide to just “heck care altogether” to spend more time with my loved ones. This is what results in the long lapses between 2 blog posts.
At the end of the day, human relationships matter much more than -anything- that you can get online.
Heya Walter
Gawd, must be a planetary realignment thing (I read somewhere that Pluto and Venus are doing something weird at the moment). I just posted a 3 part rant on exactly the same thing (which got the comment “who’s got time to read something so long?”).
Yes, absolutely, I hear you!
=) Marc
Hi Walter!
Glad to see you blgging again! I’m totally with u on this topic… I contemplate btw walking my dog or doing my blog for the 45 mins-1 hr that i can spare…
I guess unplugging from the internet once in a while to do a reality check is a good thing too. The irony of social media….
I experienced the same too! Now I hardly ever use Facebook, log in only like once or twice a week, check my e-mails and that’s it.
However, one tool that I will never abandon is Skype because video conferencing with your family or voice chatting for hours and hours just closens the gap (if they are overseas that is).
i sacrificed 2 hours of sleep last night, trying to finish up a blog post. ggrrr..(yes, i type very slowly when it comes to blog posting and reading RSS feeds).
I’ve reduced my online activities significantly (except for checking work emails, personal emails and occassional chats with friends over messenger).
However, I actually did extend my blog hosting and bought 2 more years of domain name subscription.
So, sighs.. it’s a constant struggle to spend time with my bed, my very neglected books and generally just everything else in my offline world.