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During the Christmas holiday, due to the massive ice storm we had here in North America, I lost connectivity to the internet. During that time I realized what an insidious effect it had on me. How it had changed the way I viewed the world and life, living in a digital time frame based around memes, tweets, posts, previews, hype and folly. I was, for all intents and purposes, dumped out of the Matrix and now no matter how often I go back in, it is never the same. Once you have seen a world where people can’t spoil things for you, can’t criticize your thoughts and feelings, can’t touch you without physically touching you, you realize how different and wonderful the real world really is. But I don’t want to shun all technology and become a hermit, because technology is one of the best tools around. Facebook is a crack dealer for people who suffer from mental illness and it gives you a false sense of success and comfort and compassion as long as you are willing to go along with the majority. You begin to believe you are your avatar and you lose yourself, at least I did. I’ve been on a mission to combat the negativity and darkness in my life and stepping away from the internet I saw it for what it was. I thought social networking was an umbrella from the rain, I hid here the same way I hid in books to get away from my childhood. It was not an umbrella it was a shroud. The libraries and the books gave me a chance to explore my own thoughts, feelings and ideas and helped me to develop the tastes and talents I have. All the internet does is allow others to force feed you their tastes, their products and their ideas and unfortunately, few of those things are good for us.
So I won’t be using Facebook anymore than I have to, treating it as an addiction that I will try not to relapse into. I quit smoking shortly before the loss of internet service and by far staying away from Facebook has been way more difficult than cigarettes, mainly because Facebook doesn’t have a repulsive smell to trigger a reminder.
Yet I need to use modern tools, after all most of my books are for digital devices and almost all of my sales have been for readers and computers. So my goal is to keep this blog on a daily basis if possible, to keep in touch with those who support my books and to see what people on WordPress are creating too.
I also have a website set up, a static place that holds the information on one spot, which I will update on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I’ll have some free stuff to read, my own stories and stories that I love that are in public domain.
Find the website here.
It’s time to change, again. Until I find the right body, the right space, the right life. Hopefully some of my companions here online will stick around for the next season.