I used to love my blogroll. I’d speed through my news sites in the morning and flitter from Apartment Therapy to Design Sponge to Brownstoner toChocolate and Zucchini, and absorb all the current events, DIY projects, real estate, and recipes to pop up overnight.
But before I knew it, several hours of my morning were gone. Worse, my bank account was precipitously depleted. And to add insult to injury: I was hungry. For food, for useless goods, for a new apartment, for the perfect bikini. And I was buzzing. Instead of coffee or tea, my brain was over-stimulated by tumblrs and dot coms.
Previously, I have dealt with the ruinous effect of website obsession with banning myself, cold turkey, from said site. This happened in 2008, when I overdosed on political news leading up to the American presidential election. While in grad school, I forbade myself from The Huffington Post – a ban which I still voluntarily observe - because I was reading so much news that I was not writing about the news industry, as I should have been. And now, once again, I’m debating whether I should restrict myself from the Internet.
I know I’m not alone in this problem. Researchers speak often of the Fear of Missing Out, and how the Internet fuels it. We see a restaurant review on a blog, and we rush to try to Hot New Place before it gets overrun with tourists. We see pictures of a friend’s vacation on Facebook and start researching yoga retreats. We see the before and after photos of an amazing renovation on a design blog and immediately decide that our kitchen cabinets need repainting.
The knowledge that someone else has something Awesome produces an irrepressible urge to have Awesome for yourself. That’s true for products, cuisine, knowledge, relationships, anything. All this Wanting fuels a vicious trend of consumerism that engulfs our wallets, our hours, and our souls. You can’t visit a blog without being inundated by temptation. You can’t be good without more Stuff.
In the last couple of years, I’ve tried to step back from all this conspicuous consumption. I’ve tried to have less. Spend less. Not update that wardrobe that doesn’t really fit. Not retire that old duvet that doesn’t really match. Not fantasize about other apartments, second homes. But my Internet tendencies threaten to topple my ascetic ideals. So I’m considering a whole world-wide-web-plate full of cold turkey. I can’t unplug – I am a writer, after all - but I’m thinking about deleting all my bookmarks, going a week without my blogroll. Then maybe two weeks. Then, maybe, months from now, I’ll wake up and I will have forgotten all about that awesome wallpaper that would be so perfect for a future nursery. Maybe.
Image via RambergMediaImages's Flickr