Last year I ruined my summer vacation by bringing along a modem convenience that was too convenient for my own good: the iPad. Instead of looking at nature, I checked my email. Instead of paddling a small boat, I followed my Twitter feed. Instead of reading great novels, I stuck to reading four newspapers each morning. I was behaving as if I were still in the office. My body was on vacation but my head wasn't.
So this year I made up my mind to try something different: withdrawal from the Internet. I knew it wouldn't be easy since I'm bad at self-control. But I was determined. I started by giving the iPad to my wife.
The cellphone signal at our house was worse than in the past, making my attempts at cheating an experience in frustration. I was trapped, forced to go through with my plan. Largely cut off from e-mail, Twitter and my favorite newspaper websites, I had few ways to connect to the world except for radio and how much radio can one listen to, really? I had to do what I had planned to all along: read books.
This experience has had a happy ending. With determination and the strong support of my wife, I won in my vacation struggle against the Internet, realizing finally that it was I, not the iPad, that was the problem. I knew I had won when we passed a Starbucks and my wife asked if I wanted to stop to use the Wi-Fi. "I don't need it," I said.
However, as we return to post-vacation life, a harder test begins: Can I continue when I'm back to work? There are times when the need to know what's being said right now is great. And I have no intention of giving up my convenience completely. But I hope to resist the temptation(诱惑)to check my e-mail every five minutes, which leads to checking my Twitter feed and a website or two.
I think a vacation is supposed to help you reset your brain to become more productive. Here I hope this one worked.
