Today at about 3pm I realized that my whole day had been spent inside, despite nice weather outside. As I worked on my new youtube video, I started feeling really dazed and as if I wasn’t feeling ANYTHING. I was just staring at the computer screen, lost in thought except for this realization that brought me back in touch with physical reality. Sometimes I intensely dislike the amounts of time I spend on a computer. Sure, I do things on the computer, such as study and work on webpages, but it’s still frustrating. To me, being online is the epitome of self-world, a place where everything is commanded at your whim. It’s especially conducive to developing the character flaw of impatience and irritability. If I’m online and I get bored of a particular genre of entertainment, I need only change the line in the address bar and I’ll be satisfied again with something new and interesting. I don’t think it’s wrong to surf the web, but I find myself indulging when I’m online. Not just doing what I need to do, not just having a source of entertainment, but enjoying commanding the entertainment and changing at my whim.

I’m not sure what the ramifications are in real life, but you certainly can’t change anything in the word at your whim, and jobs have to be completed and not suddenly taken on and abandoned. Maybe that’s why the internet is so addictive and so attractive. Generally you’re allowed complete power and given no responsibilities (other than following apart-from-internet-life imposed restrictions, such as limited time allowed online.) Online it is also remarkably easy to do what the Bible says is a foolish man’s delight - to air your own opinions and get involved in countless debates that include such things as ego boosting (I won! I’m right! What a good point I made!) and meaningless talk that may never contribute to influencing the eternal destiny of those souls that we as Christians so valiantly talk about saving.

To put it short, I’m still online. But I’m starting to be more aware of the downside of the internet, that goes beyond the plain idea of time wasting. I’m not saying that there aren’t legitimate uses of the internet and all that, and I realize that what I’m doing right here is what I mentioned above - spouting my opinion. Does it lessen the offense if you admit you’re a hypocrite??

So after I thought about that a little while, I went on a walk with my sister that was almost an hour long. To think of the little out of breath feeling I got reminds me of the question on the sheet at the dental office that I had to fill out. It said “Have you ever…” and then continued with a line of sicknesses and ailments. One of the ailments was “been short of breath?” It made me laugh, to think that it sounded like you could qualify for an ailment just because you had felt breathing distress while exercising. Speaking of distress, imagine a world without pain, without any suffering or discomfort. You might get a splinter in your foot when you get out of bed. Then you’d probably burn yourself in the shower. Maybe you’d grab the dish from the oven without realizing how hot it was, and end up with blistered hands. Later in the afternoon you could be one of the 7% of people who in their lifetime have appendicitis, and die on your way to the store for some medicine for your burns. Sensation is a blessing! Next time you feel something that you consider an unnecessarily granted pain, such as a stubbed toe gives, remember how hard it would be to live without any sensation.

Posted by Bonnie under Uncategorized