Slave to the Web

My month of reducing my superfluous web browsing is over.  Looking over my list of what I said I would not do online, it is clear that I part-succeeded and part-tanked this challenge. Here’s a brief report card of how I did with each item:

     1. I'll be abstaining from all items listed under "Super Superfluous." 

This was a mixed bag. In terms of social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), I abstained almost 100%.  I accidentally logged into FB the very first day.  That’s it.  If this were the whole of my “Super Superfluous” category, I’d get an A.  But it isn’t. While I managed not to peruse online stores for things I don’t need, and avoided YouTube and strangers’ blogs, I totally looked up every cast member of Game of Thrones on IMDB.  AND I spent over an hour late at night reading stupid gossip on EOnline!  Grade: C 

"Moon of my life, my sun and stars" Credit: HBO

      2.  I will spend no more than 15 minutes daily looking at friends' blogs and the news 

          online.

Aside from gossip “news” on EOnline! (so not news), I did keep myself in check here. Grade: A

A letter to my Facebook friends.

In preparation for No Superfluous Web Browsing month, I just posted a shorter version of this as a note of my Facebook page. 

Dear Facebook friends,

Perhaps you've been following my "Operation Consumption Liberation" project on my blog.  If you've haven't, here's the gist of it: every month I've been giving up or restricting my consumption of a different object or behavior.  These are things, I feel, in which overindulging has a negative impact, be it on my physical health or success, or on the environment.

For August, I'm restricting the amount of time I spend consuming all the random crap the internet has to offer.  I want Superfluous Web Browsing to consume less of my time.  I'm still pinning down exactly what I think "superfluous web browsing" and what I will allow myself to do. (Like, looking up the weather forecast?  Okay.  Reading Wil Wheaton's totally geeky blog late at night? No, no, no.)  But here's the one parameter for this month I'm set on: No Facebook.