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Monday, January 17, 2011

48 Hours Off Twitter

I decided to take the weekend off Twitter to hang out with the wife and get caught up on some work. I hope nobody felt left out during this long weekend. Now, I did not completely unplug. I stil checked the stream from time to time and was still connected to my email. I thought about the complete unplug, but with #edcampDetroit starting and various other ventures starting, I needed to stay connected to email at the minimum. I also have my grad classes to think about as well (see previous post). I wasn't sure what was going to happen over the weekend, but I wasn't really shocked by the end result.

Nothing happened. Essentially, the Twitterverse kept going and the Internet, as far as I can tell, did not collapse. There were times when I wanted to bounce some ideas of friends, but I waited and thought on them some more. It really forced me to go back to the way things were a little over a year ago when I was not connected to a PLN. That was a lonely time. I love having people to share my ideas with outside of my house. I'm sure my wonderful wife loves hearing about all of my tech and teacher related ideas, but the need for more than one sounding board becomes apparent after a day.

I know others have done similar experiments and have had similar experiences. I think it is good for me to unplug from time to time to really focus on my work. The one thing Twitter can do is get me thinking about other projects I would love to start even though I have a few in the works already. The biggest downside of unplugging from Twitter is missing all of @tgwynn's jokes. Bear Down buddy!

When was the last time you unplugged from Twitter?

5 comments:

  1. Nick,

    Isn't it amazing that the Internet didn't crash while you were gone?

    I have been online less and less recently. Mostly because I have 'real world' stuff going on. I have been making time to hang out with friends, I have been going to the gym, and I have been doing things around the house that needed doing.

    It actually feels good.

    I think we all need a little break now and again to stop and look around.

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  2. It is amazing how the world can move on when we aren't proactively present. I'll be first to admit that my daily digital dose is somewhat what of an opiate at times--hence my attraction to the occasional silliness of Twitter and randomness of StumbleUpon. But, like you know as an active part of so man's PLN, our online presence, aka digital footprint, can be a formidable tool for our own growth and development as humans and educators. That said, we do need those breaksfrom it.

    Your post got me thinking of something I've wanted to do for sometime, but have been too concerned about "missing out." I am going to take a day of rest. For the most part, Sundays are one of the one mostly-peaceful, everyone's together, days that I have each week. I'll also add for reasons of faith and conviction, Sundays are typically set aside to focus on what's important and put the rest of the week aside and its activities aside. So, here it is, for all the world to see (because what better place than here to make this "announcement"), Sundays will be my day-away. I'm sure everyone, including myself, will survive.

    I appreciate the reflection and honesty in this post. Also, to connect more with my digital colleagues, I too will make the effort to post 3x a week. Unfortunately I won't be getting any Grad Level credits for it, but I will be able to make more connections and hopefully gain perspective from my reflection and gain insight from my 4-5 readers (.5 actually leave comments).

    Cudos Nick. And if Tim were here, Bear down.

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  3. It is quite nice to take a break. It also helps shine a light on the need for balance - something I am still trying to perfect.

    On a side note, Nick & Jeremy, I must say I love seeing others say Bear Down.

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  4. I try hard every weekend, seriously feel like I miss out on tons but hubby appreciates and makes me that much more excited to hang with you all on Monday. Good practice for baby P :)
    Pretty glad the Internet didn't collapse in your absence. Your awesomeness must have carried over.

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  5. I have a very hard to disconnecting. In fact, unless someone takes my phone and my laptop, I navigate to one of those things all the time. I'm pretty sure this isn't good, but that's how I roll.

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