I'm going on a diet!

I've decided, with some deliberation, to go on a diet. "Women and their bloody diets!" No, not quite. I read an article this morning citing Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield of Oxford University and her view that excessive screen culture may be changing the way our brains are wired.Article here

I don't think this sort of proclamation is anything new. But I respect her work having read Brain Story a few years ago, and who am I to argue with an Oxford University Prof?! As a result of more screen time, she said that peoples attention span declined, and they also seemed to show a lack of empathy. This bothers me because one of my 'strengths', if you like, is to have empathy for people. This was tested recently in a slightly more rigorous environment than normal day to day life, while undertaking a Counselling Skills course. It's a career choice I keep coming back to, and, when I eventually write the West Highland Way post, you might see why. However, the difference between empathy and transference is something else I need to think about though...

Of more interest than the brief words written and attributed to her, were the comments posted at the bottom of the article. Different readers' life experiences, and comparisons of cyber life in different countries. (I particularly liked the comment Gosh, I think back to the time when reading a book under the shade of a tree in the summer was a perfect way for me to spend the afternoon.) This different experience is very interesting, especially to me who is a glutton for more and more knowledge, and I enjoy thinking about how other people experience life.

Further, my friends will know that I spend an inordinate time on (or being updated by) Facebook and Twitter. This has mostly crept up since I've been out of work and is something of a replacement for the social interaction I used to have that interspersed the 9 hours a day I spent there. I have TweetDeck popping up whenever someone I follow tweets, and Facebook doing its own thing, which the developers seem to like to change every 3 weeks or so. But that is where most of my friends are to be found and I gain enjoyment out of seeing what they're up to.But do all these updates from friends and people I follow really help me though?


For the last two to three years I've been toying with the idea of simplifying my life and reducing clutter. My Mum would laugh herself silly at this because I am a very messy, untidy person who moves from one project to the next, but likes to have it laid out to go back to. My kitchen table has printed photographs and art materials strewn all over, with things to sell on ebay, plus my Notebook which I am typing this up on.
This is actually relevant to what I'm writing about because my whole life I think needs to go on a diet! I have been reducing the number of friends on Facebook; from almost 200 to now 138 as it stands, and am trying to get to the magic 100 number. I'm also attempting to adopt the same on Twitter which is rather different in terms of content; I tend to have more meaningful conversations with friends on Facebook so could it be legitimate to have a ratio operating here of 1 Facebook friend = 3 Twitter follows? Or is that utter rubbish?
And the blogs and websites I follow. That needs to be curtailed too.

As it happens, I read an article again yesterday morning that I'd come across in 2008 about reducing your possessions to 100 items, original TIME article and the update by the guy who wrote it, who I also follow on Twitter (!). And a while back now I read Henry David Thoreau's Walden, Or Life In The Woods, where he effectively built his own cabin in the woods and lived an extremely simple life for two years (though neglected to mention in his book that he went to his Mums for dinner once a week!). This all underlies a desire to par down my life to a more manageable level and to allow more time for creativity.

A further impetus to wanting to 'diet' is my own experiences of being out in pubs or outdoors generally, where the people I am with are constantly alerted by their phones of something new in the world happening. Their being alerted also means I am alerted too, albeit to their disappearing off into a different time space continuum for a few moments or however long it takes for them to read, digest and respond (and repeat). They have a private communication with whatever is happening, even if it is simply reading some text, which removes me from that relationship at that distinct point in time. Empathy? Well how do you have a flowing, communicative relationship with someone who is constantly being distracted by something else? I've done it myself where I've been in bars with friends and had texts and responded, though equally I've set boundaries to this too, at the risk of offending the people who are sending me updates and wanting a reply. What boundaries should be set, if any? What respect do you show the person you are with if you are constantly disappearing in terms of attention?

So, this diet. Well in both my cyber and real life I am going to reduce my clutter. Carry on the online reduction, carry on the physical real life reduction. Reduce the time I spend on Facebook and Twitter (time will tell how successful I am in these aspirations), maybe actually increase the time I spend thinking (maybe that's not such a good thing), actually being with people if they are local and communicating more meaningfully with people who are not, and actually reading BOOKS! Even if they are online :o) I want to ensure these are in line with my bigger life goals, which at present don't extend that much more than finding a job to fund my bigger goal of walking the PCT in 2012. My actions and how I spend my time need to reflect that, otherwise the PCT is definately at risk.

So, now that I've written this I am going to go and spend some 'quality time' with a friend of 6 years standing (thats an old friend for me!), without being distracted by Tweets, Texts or Facebook updates and just enjoy that. Maybe old fashioned but I make no apology for that!