• by whitley , March 2, 2011

For the past two months, my life has been extremely boring.

Since the beginning of January, I have lived without a television. And since the middle of February, I have not had a functioning computer.

For the entire first semester of school I was able to use the TV that one of my friends stored in my room over the summer. I was used to the luxury of coming in from an exhausting day and relying on the TV and Facebook and Twitter to wind my day down.

It’s been an interesting two months.

I have noticed a drastic change in the way that I act now when I am in my room without a TV and a laptop, compared to how I did when I had those things in my possession.

In most ways, I can say that I have benefited from this, but in other ways, I have felt like I am going through some form of withdrawal from electronics.

I can also say that I have been able to stay on task better and not procrastinate as much since being television and laptop-less.

When I had a TV in my room, I would come in from class, drop my bags, take off my coat and kick off my shoes. After that I would immediately turn on the TV, plop down on my bed and grab my laptop and web surf as I also peered over the top of my laptop to view the TV as well.

I always felt as though I couldn’t miss anything that was going on in the media; which is why I was attempting to do multiple things at once. I knew that I could not give my full attention to both my computer and television, but I did know that if I needed to Google something that I saw on TV, my laptop was already in front of me and that by having everything on, including my phone being right at my side, I would receive the information that I wanted to receive in the most timely manner and all at once.

I used to get caught up in watching marathons of Law and Order: SVU and debating on whether or not I should get up and go to my meetings.

I used to lie in bed Sunday afternoons watching Lifetime movies knowing that I should get up and go to the library to study.

I used to make it to class late because I somehow ventured onto my laptop to check my e-mail and then got lost in the world of Facebook and Twitter.

Now that those distractions are gone, I feel that I am much more productive. I don’t spend my much needed time on Facebook in the morning when I should be showering. And I no longer need the sound of Nick at Nite or music playing from my laptop to fall asleep.

I guess I’m just a boring soul. But I get more done as a boring soul than I did as an electronic junkie.