I\u2019ve got to kick this addiction to my media devices. Here\u2019s an example of the depth of my pathology. First I check my email on my phone. (Periodically I remove the email app from my phone, but I always put it back promptly.) Second, I go to my laptop and check my email again, in case somebody emailed me in the last few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, since I don\u2019t have my work email on my phone, I turn to my other devices. (I have to enter my personal email password before I can set up my work email on my phone. I don\u2019t remember this password. I have it written down, but I never think about adding my work email to my phone when I am at my desk, because I can access said work email on both my laptop and my desktop.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, I look up my work email on my laptop or my desktop, or both. Then I check my personal email again in case somebody has emailed me in the last few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Occasionally, I see a message in bold face and I get a fleeting rush of dopamine. This, even when it\u2019s a reminder about a cancer treatment appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who struggle with this madness often complain that their electronic devices are always demanding their attention. For me, it\u2019s the other way around. I spend a great deal of my time trying to wring attention from my devices. Sometimes I catch myself entering my password on my phone, even though I have already (in the last few seconds) checked every avenue by which somebody might reach out to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I can\u2019t conjure up a personal message, I read the advice columns on google. This often has the effect of making me feel better about my own life. Occasionally, when I get sucked into reading something over again (by means of a different headline) one too many times, I start reading \u201cAITA\u201d on reddit. Now I don\u2019t have an account on reddit\u2014I don\u2019t even know how to get one\u2014but somehow I keep getting excerpts on my google feed. Many of the posters are A\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or, when this passtime grows thin, I often turn to YouTube. Sometime we will talk in depth about my addiction to Supernanny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s hopeless, you say? I will never be anything but a drooling button-pushing minion of Big Tech? Hah! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is reading. Yes, actual books, made of paper and glue. In the last little while I have read Dr. Zhivago, Prince of Foxes, <\/em>and assorted tomes less memorable. Currently, I have embarked on The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. <\/em>As you can see, I have not yet begun to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve got to kick this addiction to my media devices. Here\u2019s an example of the depth of my pathology. First I check my email on my phone. (Periodically I remove the email app from my phone, but I always put it back promptly.) Second, I go to my laptop and check my email again, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[640,462,642,641],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings-about-language-and-life","tag-media-addiction","tag-reading","tag-smart-phone-addiction","tag-social-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1690,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}