Three month computer-in-moderation experiment

How much time do YOU spend on the computer? How much time is leisure, how much work, research, play? Are you spending hours on your computer browsing facebook or youtube after your kids go to bed? Do you obsessively check your email/facebook/twitter (I don't have twitter, but just to include everyone) to see if someone has emailed you or replied to your thread? Do you fill out quiz after quiz for entertainment or to find answers to questions you wish you knew? Do you measure your value as a person by how many people reply to your posts? Have you looked at pictures of your friends, and secretly coveted their life/house/vacations/job/children/fill-in-the-blank? Have you ever said to yourself: how on earth is it 11 pm already, and then stayed on for no reason in particular? Do you consistently stay up past the point when you're body signals for you to go to sleep? Have you ever chatted with your husband online while you're in adjacent rooms (actually that works quite well for us when we're sharing links and looking at places to move to, as well as when we're arguing, because it removes tone of voice, and encourages thinking before writing. Just saying!)?
I have at some point or other been guilty of all the above, and I deem this no longer a desirable way of living. Mainly I'm just curious how much I could do, and frankly WHAT I would do, if I put my computer time to good use. Let's face it: I can't live without the internet anymore. I don't want to. It's cheap and practical to stay in touch with my family and friends back home in the States, and all over the world. And if people move, it doesn't matter, because I no longer need to keep track of their physical address. And I'm certainly not about to head down to our library in Eindhoven, to research a subject when all they have are outdated Dutch books, that you have to pay for to check out. I wouldn't even do that in the US. Google rocks. Thanks for inventing it. And can I just say: AMAZON!!!


Just FYI we don't have TV in our home. Many people find that bizarre, but we don't miss it. At first I only wanted to watch two shows, but then we would record others on the DVR just out of curiosity. It got to the point, where I felt I had to schedule time to keep up with all my shows. We were amazed at all the time it freed up once we got rid of it. Now that we live in the Netherlands and have few friends, it seems that our free time has gradually shifted towards the computer. I can live without TV. DVD's work fine, and occasional going to the movies. But how do I live with the internet without letting it take over my life, and replace my real life socializing with virtual friendships? Here's my experiment. Since I don't want to live without internet, I will attempt a three month computer-in-moderation plan. I will actually schedule time during the day to do what I need to do, and then cap off my computer time at 7:30 pm at night (except for tonight because I'm writing this lengthy blog post, and Micah wanted extra attention). My kids go to bed at around 7-ish, so I have 30 minutes to write a blog entry, and check email and calendar for the following day.
I find that for me one of the major problems with staying on too late is that I have valid things to do that I really need the computer for. My main online work consists in organizing my son-rise program, creating, editing, and reviewing forms, searching for volunteers, and researching more treatment options for Ezra, and Micah. On the leisure side I would like to create videos and photo albums of the kids, write a novel, or at least update my blog more than once every two months. I also use the computer as a phone book and a cookbook. However I simply don't get to these during the day, because as soon as I sit down in the office, the kids come bouncing in with requests for music, or play, or they get into trouble, because they tend to be aggressive with each other.   I think I'll just do it when the kids are in bed. By the time they are though, I'm just too exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is look for more treatments for autistic children. So I log on, feeling somewhat isolated after a whole day of talking to just my kids and my mom, thinking I'll first catch up with some friends and get some social interaction. And sometimes I do get to skype with a friend and that is fun. YAY, skype inventer. Well done! Best thing invented since google. But other than that I just browse facebook, and watch funny youtube videos to distract myself and relax. The result is, that I get less real interaction with friends, and I probably make less friends here in the Netherlands, because a) I hardly go out because I'm tired, and it's rainy, dark, and cold now, and b) the friends I have online I rarely email them (why email if I can just post in one line how I'm doing on facebook, and aren't they all on facebook?). I get no work done, and then feel more stressed about it, because I have to do it some other time. I go to bed too late, wake up slightly sleep deprived and somewhat groggy, which affects my parenting, and my health, and after one and a half of staying up late, I don't speak Dutch, I've written no novel, found only two stable volunteers, and haven't gotten all that much closer to my friends back home. Bit of a wast of time, huh? To be fair, I did create a website for Ezra, have organized several of our pictures, written blog entries, and have learned a lot about treatment options for him, not to mention the countless research papers and articles I read. Still, I'm hopeful that with budgeted screen time, I will be more productive and happier. Wish me perseverance!