Last week when we were talking about How To Media Fast, it seemed that more than watching TV, people are spending hours and hours everyday (even after they get home from work) on the internet. A huge part of that, for us anyway, is catching up on all the blogs and inspiration floating around.
While we were away on our trip to China we had really limited internet access. For 3 weeks I only checked AT once, checked my email every 4 or 5 days and didn't spend more than 2 hours on the internet for the whole trip. It was incredible. Granted we were traveling so we had the luxury of people not expecting us to return their emails right away and we were experiencing all kinds of other inspiration that we would normally get from blogs, so it was easier than just limiting the time on the computer while at home. But we noticed how much clearer our thoughts were and also realized that we can end up taking in so much information, images and ideas that it can be difficult turning off and going to sleep. After reading about so many great ideas, my mind can spin with all the things I'd like to try, do around the house, buy, write about, discover, etc. It creates clutter in my brain. Which is why The Cure talks about taking a break from the barrage of information.
When we ran across a post called Cutting Through the Design Blog Smog on the Real Simple blog, the author talked about limiting herself to reading 10 blogs a day. 10 blogs a day, we sometimes read 60! So while doing a complete Media Fast might not be possible in our day to day lives, our end of April resolution is to cut back on some of our blog reading to leave more space for our own creativity, real life with friends and family, maybe planting a garden, reading a book, or just sitting still.
Does this ring a bell with you? Could you cut back that much or do you already have other parameters in place to limit your internet intake?
[image from LA House Tour: Stefanie's Old World Modern]
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Laure, your posts are awesome.
I live and work on the internet and the idea of checking even 10 blogs a day sounds manic. One painting, one breeze, one scent can inspire a whole project. 60 blogs a day sounds to me like an addiction to the rush of visual noise. It certainly doesn't make your creative work better - I guarantee that.
I am definitely feeling burned-out on blogs and have cut my reading down to about 4 a day. I'm also no longer reading comments - too many are bitchy and negative. Mean people do not make me feel good.
I too spend much of the day in front of the computer at work, and so I've instituted "screen free" weeknights for myself. No TV, no computer, Mon-Thurs. Thanks to DVR, I can still watch my favorite shows, just on Friday evening or the weekend. I find the evenings seem much longer, and I definitely get more done, more books read!
You live on the internet?
I could cut back on the time I spend reading AT - a lot.
Gawd- 60 blogs?! It can take all day just reading this one!
Sometimes keeping up with AT feels like a full time job in itself.
YES OH YES!
my problem began a few months ago when i started using Google Reader. i thought i would save time by not checking individual sites, so i subscribed to any&all blogs that seemed interesting. BUT soon my blog list reached 100 . AH! inspiration overload!!
that Real Simple post was the wakeup call i needed.
now i'm downsizing my subscriptions to include only those i truly *love*
I'm with snoopy. Yesterday I had an AT free day, and I plan to have more. Instead of trying to keep up with it all I've decided I'll have a quick peek at the end of each day, scan a few posts, and leave it at that....I'm cutting down to 2 blogs the NYT and the BBC. No mas!
Yesterday I didn't check AT at work at all and in the evening I went through the day's posts - it took forever. I really like AT but it can be such a time suck!
Yes, yes, yes. I completely agree with this whole "blog clutter" thing. I read about 10 blogs a day - in each of my 3 favorite categories (design, music, and fashion), so it adds up. I feel like it's better than watching tv, but it sucks up even more time! And if you skip a day or two, playing catch up is ridiculous!
I am definitely old media and I check only about three blogs on a regular basis. Apartment Therapy is one of them, but I am beginning to find it too full of suggestions to declutter and pare down. Now I am thinking maybe the reason I don't need 60 blogs is that I like real, tangible stuff, like books, flowers, furniture and newspapers. Would hate to be living the virtual life that some readers seem to be trapped in.
AT has made me into a "blog addict" - well at least an AT Blog addict. I hardly ever spent a lot of time on the computer until then. I have come to realize that all my time spent on AT is preventing me from doing the very thing that attracted me to AT - which was to GET MY APARTMENT IN ORDER!!
(Anyone want to start a "ATAA" group - Apartment Therapy Addicts Anonymous) ;-)
I agree.
While I appreciate all the efforts and work AT puts into this blog, keeping up with the posts requires constant monitoring.
AT is just one of 10 on my daily regimen.
What I find exhausting is the embedded links and cross-referencing that bloggers provide in the posts. Before I know it, 5-6 hours have passed, and I'm too mentally drained to do my own artwork!
...and another thing...
I've been reading these blogs for about a year now, and am just beginning to realize that all of you are regurgitating each others posts and magazine spreads from magazines I already OWN.
While it was great learning that there is a community of people that share my aesthetic for decorating and design, I find it frustrating that there is so much blog cross-referencing happening.
I don't even bother to read the embedded post links anymore, unless some miracle has happened and there is only one. Do people really think anybody has time to read the 18 links they've included in each post? How did THEY have time for all that...
I decided to start cutting back on reading too once I realized I'd been spending all my time checking out other people's work and creating nothing of my own! After I deleted a bunch of feeds I divided the rest into two categories: Every Day and Weekends. The Weekends group is for blogs that don't publish every day and also for when I'm at work on a weekend or overnight and have time to kill...