A REAL PERSON, A LOT LIKE YOU
Anything you want
Hi there,
It continuous to delight me to ask and receive. I cried real tears reading some of your emails last week; thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m just another person, a lot like you, who once had this wild idea that my life would be a whole lot better if only I could overcome my internet addiction and time spent offline was born out of that desperation, rage, to save my life. And to know this tiny corner of the internet reaches you in such a way, to know I’m not alone on this journey— And trust me, you are not alone either— is such a delicious, blissful feeling. Oh, and cute pets— very, very cute! Thank you, I know it’s real. ❤
Five things to share:
Every U.S. election cycle, even as a Canadian, I am utterly delighted to not be on social media. One reason I quit the news, amongst many other reasons, is that I hate being blatantly lied to. In fact, I respect clever lies; I work with teenagers and I am delighted by their ingenious lies to get out of doing things they don’t want to do without hurting my feelings, but the media? They don’t even try, they think I’m a total idiot— I will show them who’s the idiot. Some games you can only win by not playing, and I cannot lose. And really, to be honest, it was never the news I was consuming, just 140-character rage-bait headlines passing off as factual, informative “news” on Twitter. It is really a boring waste of life, politics, yes, but also pretending to be into politics so you have something to Tweet about; something to say while pretending to enjoy meandering chatter before another useless meeting. When I stopped watching the news, I had to come up with something else to talk about during our meandering chatter and I learned quickly to get to the fun, interesting stuff before I was expected to pledge allegiance, and wow, on the other end of 140-character tweets is a real person, a lot like you and me.
A quote I want to share with you:
The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
— Julia Cameron/ The Artist’s Way
Search your heart. What are you serious about? How far will you go?
A challenge for you: Remember that at the end of every computer is a real person, a lot like you.
P.s. A meme in the wild
That’s all for this week!
Thank you for reading, and share with anyone you think may benefit.
time spent offline is now a monthly analog publication you can get delivered straight to your mailbox with 20 ideas every month.
Until next time,
Mehret