My Plan to Escape the Machines

I am definitely a screen addict.

Always have been, always will. It used to be TV which left me transfixed and hypnotised, watching the deaf programmes and darts until the early morning just…because. Then along came the early pc games, then video game consoles and now, as a young adult I’m back to pcs or macs.

What keeps me there? I don’t know. But I am easily distracted, my brain flits between ideas and thoughts even when I have no screen. I try to remember witty remarks, jokes, interesting nuggets to share with friends. They are rarely used which makes it a pointless use of time and brain energy. But given a screen or any form of endless entertainment, I just can’t stop, I’ll be consumed for hours, days even (I once spent a full two days in my room at uni, doing nothing but watching this programme on youtube and eating cornflakes in my boxers - it’s damaging people). The internet is dangerous for me because of its endless possibilities. I become lost in the black hole of infinite content.

All of this means I can’t leave machines if I use them frequently; tricky when we rely on them so heavily. Once I’m sitting at a mac or pc I’ve lost an hour simply on email, news sites, youtube. They feed my brain what it wants but not what it needs.

So how do I plan to evade their clutches? To spend more time reading books, learning things, catching up with friends, just being instead of consuming?

Well, I’m leaving the city. But not completely. For the forseeable future I’ll be heading to the Devon coast for a fresh start on a new internship. I will spend week days down there and weekends back home in London with the parents. I don’t plan on taking a laptop or mac with me, especially for the first week or two. This should be a refreshing break and the detox I need. I will have my smartphone but plan on using the data sparingly. Best of all the friends I’ll be staying with have dogs and live 10 minutes walk from the beach. I hope to get more exercise and clear my mind. Maybe I can wake up super early and go before work or perhaps in the evenings after. I can’t wait. I miss nature.

I will let you know how it goes…