Are They Really Necessities?

In the spirit of John Bytheway (I've never been to one of his firesides, but I have listened to a talk or two, and read one of his books, and Julianne repeats his stories from time to time), I decided to give up electronic entertainment for 30 days. For me, electronic entertainment means:

1. Computer games (not very hard, I play them a couple times a month at most)
2. Television
3. Internet surfing, especially online news

I only watch television with Julianne, who enjoys it more than I do. Thus, I need to find good activities to fill up the time instead with her!

I love reading the news online, and this is the main reason I decided to set the goal. I want to see how different my life is if I cut that out completely. Besides my work, online news is the primary use I make of the computer.

This is basically an experiment to see how it affects my performance at work, my relationship with my family, and my progress with my other goals.

Recreation and relaxation are important, but I want to find out if my level and type of recreation was the best choice! I'll post here about how it turns out.

John Bytheway posted the chapter from his book about this:

Thirty Days, That's All We Ask

PS I am cheating a little bit - I still listen to music on the computer and radio, and I read the comics that my wife has automatically update as her background. I figured those were fair concessions, since I don't think either of them really cuts into my productivity.

Things as They Really Are

Any sort of addiction can be a major obstacle to self-reliance. An addiction can result in spending a large amount of time and or money on things that get us no closer to (or even drive us away from) our personal goals.

Elder Bednar focused in a recent talk on a newer, but quickly growing, addiction - to virtual worlds, computer games and social networking.

Things as They Really Are

It reminded me of my earlier post: Priorities

When I was younger, I finally figured we only had so much time in this life, and there wasn't much point in spending a significant chunk of it in a virtual life. As one website put it, get a first life in a real-time, 3D analog world with no lag and 6.5 billion users.