Bye Bye - Book of Faces!
Facebook is shut down for a while, I really have no clue how this is going to turn out. I don't have a lot of confidence in myself. I tried it before when I first moved back to New Hampshire in November, 2009, and it was an epic fail.
But now I have pretty much connected with everyone I have wanted to connect with. I think I will be able to shut it down for a while so that I can focus on turning this whole idea of disconnecting into a book.
I'm trying to peel myself away from technology one step at a time. Facebook seems like to be the biggest waist of time that I have ever run into. It does have its benefits, but imagine how many man hours are wasted on a social networking sites in offices throughout the United States.
Tonight, I noticed how people were so tethered to their phones and relying on them. As we were organizing a little get together over my place. People showing up here and there, getting a little lost, calling, calling, calling.
TOO MUCH STATIC:
The Television is next. I mean by barely watch TV as it is. I think the Daily Show and The Colbert Report will get an exception. One hour of TV can't be too bad. I can remember when I was kid, my sister and I were allowed 1 hour of television during the summer. Do you know what show we chose to watch? The Price Is Right. I still love that show, but that's another topic for another time.
With no TV and no Facebook, how will I get to watch random videos of people making fools of themselves? I probaby won't. I'm still trying to finish reading 3 books. Email will be the best way to correspond with me during my facebook shut down time, timcroes @ gmail.com but I will continue to accept text messages to my 603.998.4022 number.
I am trying to switch over to a texting only plan with Verizon. I used to be anti-text but I now think texting is actually a healthier form of contact. But then again there is no tone in text messaging, or it is very hard to establish it with 100% accuracy.
Btw, how much time do people save by eliminating single letters from words like "txt" does dropping the e really make a huge difference?
I will also gladly accept letters, notes, etc. sent to my mailing address:
Tim Croes
PO Box 2156
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
Back to the distractions, hopefully getting rid of facebook will allow me to sit down at my computer and actually write. I know when I was writing for the newspaper in Virginia, I wasn't allowed to use facebook, it was actually blocked.
There were plenty of other distractions on the Internets that got my attention and
took my focus away from the task at hand.
Below is the current version of the essay that I penned five years ago while monitoring a study hall at Brewster Academy:
Imagine
Five years ago, A Perfect Circle released their new CD, Emotive, with a cover of Lennon's Imagine. Isn't it amazing how words written so far ago can be applied to today? Do you know why?
It is simple.
The Beatles were like no other band in the history of music. They started a revolution, not a revolution in music. A revolution in society!!!
Imagine
Growing up in the 60s and 70s during a time when drugs were used by everyone must have been intense. That is when my parents grew up and I wish I could go back in time. You know why it was so cool? Computers, cell phones, mp3 players, 24 hour news networks, all that stuff didn't exist. People had their music and that was it. I mean television existed, but it wasn’t a controlling medium like it is today.
Reality TV is the biggest load of bullshit that the media has ever produced and anyone associated with most reality television in general should be fired. "Television, you are fired!!!"
I actually like shows like the Amazing Race and Survivor, even though I don’t watch them I understand the appeal.
Imagine
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E-mail, text messaging, and any type of communication that wasn't around five, ten, even fifteen years ago. What effect has it had on society? Society now is so fast, get it, get it, got it, phew I checked my e-mail on my cell phone and got my stock quote. That saved me at least five minutes. Why doesn't everyone just get some electric scissors? (Thank you David Cross for pointing that out)
Do you ever think about growing up ten years ago when computers weren't as integrated into society as they are now? It would be so different. I mean I know nine-year-olds who have cell phones with a camera built into it that also checks their email. What is next on the technology scale?
Imagine
Next time you want to make a phone call to someone on their cell phone call their "landline" phone (what you don't have their landline phone? I guess you don't the person very well. What they don't have a landline phone? Oh that makes sense because who needs a phone at home!!!)
The benefits of a cell phone are far outweighed by its effect on society as a whole. Same thing goes for GPS (It is like porn on the internet, it is here to stay in a big way.) Who knows if it really gives you cancer? If it does my whole generation will die of "brain cancer" by the time that we are 40.
I wish I could get rid of my cell phone, but I just signed a new contract and can't do it now because it would cost me 125 dollars and right now I have a combined 100 dollars in my two checking accounts.
Imagine
Take an hour, a day, a week, a weekend, a month, something and don't use anything electric just go outside and do something. Go on the porch and read a good book. What you don't have any books? Go to library and borrow a good book. (Right now I’m reading Faith by Mitch Albom and the Peter Jennings Biography) Don't buy a magazine, you will get distracted and not read it or just throw it in the bathroom for toilet time.
I guarantee you will enjoy yourself. I love listening to music, but recently have been reading a lot and find it just as good. I mean when you read a 200 page hardcover book that is a commitment. It is not something that is going to be over in two hours like a crappy movie like "Sex in the City 2"
Imagine
