Ironically, I am posting this on the internet.....

Sometimes I feel a little apathetic for the fact that I can not process things as well as I feel like I should when I am reading it on an internet page. I have spent a lot of money on printer paper this semester as I have had professors trying to be earth friendly and placing readings on the internet, because I just can not focus the way I need to when I am reading something off a computer screen. If my mind is about to start wandering, facebook, my netflix account, my email and youtube is only just a click away. And its easy for me to want to look at links that are similar when I am actually very interested in what I am reading, and so as a result, I wind up spending too much time trying to find as many resources as I can and not enough time really trying to comprehend.

I kind of became aware of these habits, and I have advocated for a push AWAY from the computer whenever possible for getting work done. Its a useful tool, but I want to use it, and I do not want it to use me. I find that I need to take a sabbath from the internet.I find some things on there very convienent and useful.

However, I will never forget this semester when my computer needed to be taken to the computer emergency room, actually feeling RELEIVED. Well, it was annoying with the work that I actually needed to get done on the internet. However, I found myself going to the library to print out the things that I needed printed out. I just sat down at the end of the day and watched "Buffy" on DVD which is what I really wanted to do with my spare time anyway. The next day, while I did have to run errands, I went on a walk. In an odd way, I felt a lot better for all of this. I tried to bring up some questions with people about the way we let the internet rule our lives. Are we not really processing the information? How are we really spending our time? Are we really being creative and engaged in the world? I got a lot of resistance on some of these ideas that I found myself questioning, telling me that we live in a digital age, and that I need to accept this, especially if I am going to be a pastor in this day and age.

I am not one to be completely against the use of the internet, but I do have a level of skepticism with the effects that it has on me. Last summer, I read this article in a PRINT version of the Atlantic:

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=32924989978&h=BbrwA&u=vP-zg&ref=mf

I think that it brings up some interesting points in the way people process information in our digitial age. Maybe it scares me just a little bit, because if I ever have kids, I would want them to love to read Shakespeare just as much as I do. And I feel ironic posting this on my blog, but I have always made an effort to really be honest about what my thought process is on here...