While spending a few months breathing the fresh air and studiously neglecting my online world, I discovered that I felt much better in general.

This bears emphatic declaration: The online world is not in any way a proper substitute for the Real World.

There is enormous appeal to online community and the relationships we develop in our chosen communities. While I would not advocate complete abandonment of blogs and online news sources, there is good reason to recommend taking a hiatus from it for a period of time.

Humans are social animals, used to living in communities with lots of face to face communication. Historically, until rather recently, most of your human interaction would be with people you knew (and who knew you) all your life, from birth to death.

Although teh internets provide an excellent way of exchanging information and networking, it remains an alienating medium at base. It lacks smells, body language, vocal inflection and intonation, etc. Emoticons, lol, (smile) and *hugs* are poor stand-ins for a much richer communication vocabulary available in meatspace.

So, go take a walk. Strike up a conversation with a total stranger and see where it goes. Don't go online for a week or two. Attend a physical protest or rally instead of signing an online petition.

As the saying goes, stop and smell the roses.

Labels: alienation, real world, vacation