To Fight and Win Against Internet Exhaustion

Hello, from my first blog post of 2019!…on January 28th….but hey, at least it’s still January! So sorry it’s taken so long. I’ve had bit of a mental dilemma when it comes to blogging and the whole internet experience lately. As I reflected on 2018 and planned for 2019, I realized something. I suffer from Internet Exhaustion. Okay, okay, that’s not a real condition. What I really means is I let the internet exhaust me in 2018. I’m a golden child of the information age, and it’s wearing me down. It’s as if having to know all there is to know is part of my core being. That’s why it’s just so tiresome to see article title after article titled “The 12 Books You Can’t Miss This Year” or “The one thing you should be doing to make mornings a breeze” or “These 49 Amazon Products Are LIFE!” Like, really, 49 of them? It’s tiresome because many of us feel like once we’ve seen that headline, we HAVE to know. We have to click on it. We HAVE to know what one thing we’ve been doing wrong when we clean the shower. We have to know the one thing NOT to say to our bosses and ALL the other “one things” because we are responsible, capable adults, and if we don’t know, we might not be capable of being responsible, capable adults….it’s madness. Or at least, that’s how I feel.

I’ve read a bunch of articles about how we’re addicted to these types of, well, articles, because getting new information gives human brains a hit of dopamine. And, apparently, many of us have major FOMO when it comes to information. Combine the Fear of Missing Out with our addiction to the dopamine our brains produce when we learn something new, and we can

let ourselves become internet consuming monsters. Yes, last year I was an information Cookie Monster, cramming all those unhealthy calories in like a cookie addict (especially the delicious looking cookies titled “Six Things You Didn’t Know About Queen Elizabeth’s Nightly Routine”…guiiilty…). And it’s trickled into this year as well. So I have to do something about it!

Maybe you’re feeling like me and you didn’t even realize it. Maybe you and I both never want to know what versions of Avocado Toast we have to make before we’ve really lived. I mean, it’s okay. We’re good. We don’t actually NEEEED to know about the three-step process to eliminating blanket odor. OH no, I didn’t even know that was a thing but maybe all my blankets have it!

See how easy it is? I just made that up. But it didn’t sound too far fetched, did it? We’ve all read articles just that loony before and actually given our thought-space to them. So, right, we’re fine without knowing how to make the sixteen best tomato sauces and how to avoid blanket odor. (Seriously, do not go sniff all your throw blankets right now). We’re good.

But are we? Because that’s what we have to decide. Will I believe I’m fine without knowing all there is to know, or staying current on, well, everything? If I can truly stay healthy and sane and also use the internet, I have to ignore the articles I know are luring me in as a FOMO suffering, info-loving person in the Information Age. It’s like I’m a shopper going in to a store for laundry detergent, but I end up spending an hour weeding through clearance items so I don’t miss a possibly amazing bargain. The internet can be the same — I only meant to spend one minute online checking the weather, but 15 minutes later I’ve learned the best way to organize a home media center and I still don’t know what the weather is going to be like today! I can make a choice every time I go into a store to only go in and get what I need and come right back out…so I should start practicing that way of “shopping” every time I open up a browser, right? Intentional internet usage: that’s the answer! If I went into Target looking for a set of measuring cups and came out with a set of measuring cups and three pages of cute seasonal stickers from the Dollar Spot and a gorgeous green water pitcher that’s going to look great on my open shelf cabinet, I would see that as a failure and be really disappointed in myself. (I’m not judging your Target shopping habits here, by the way, just my own…). I’ve got to change my mindset to be an intentional internet user just as I am an intentional shopper (most of the time). I don’t have time to browse the aisles in TJ Maxx so why in the world do I think I have time to get lost in the aisles of information on the internet?

So intentional internet usage is the plan going forward! And that leads me to this blog I write here. Knowing so much of the content on the internet is draining us more than giving life to us, I don’t always know what the write here anymore. The pressure to generate titles like “Fourteen Books You Must Read to Your Kids This Winter” is just yuck. I don’t want to be another voice telling you what you can’t miss. Not to mention that I feel like I really can’t come up with those titles because all I’ve read lately is older books. How does “The Twenty Best Books You Missed From 1951” sound to you? Catchy? I thought not. But anyway, the point is I think I’d like to continue putting up book reviews and sharing other good stuff, but it’s never my intention to be another shouting voice wearing you down and making you feel like there’s one more thing you have to know or do. I hope this spot on the internet is a light, open space, for maybe finding a good read or pointing us to a path of thoughtful and intentional living. With that goal in mind, I think I can keep putting out content out into this amazing and often overwhelming world.  

I hope you don’t deal with Internet Exhaustion at all! But if you do, join me in 2019 to fight in? Let’s be intentional internet users, intelligent but not weary and worn down with information and click bait. I find so much encouragement and good mentorship on the blogs I choose to follow, and I have no intention of throwing the baby out with the bath water, but I aim to finish 2019 in a saner state of mind than I began it with when it comes to the choices I make on what to feed my mind. As always, thanks for choosing this spot on the internet to stop and stay a while! I’m looking forward to sharing more books and life with you. 

With love and good wishes for the coming year,

Mia/Alana