Cyber Slippage

I discovered I’ve read 14 of the 35 Whitney Award finalists. Not bad, huh? That’s a decent dent in the reading pile. And since the deadline for Academy ballots isn’t until April 20th, that means if I read about two books per week, I’ll finish them all. That would be exciting. I’ve never yet managed to read every finalist. We’ll see if I make it this year (yes, I’ve already read the thousand-page The Way of Kings—I figured it would be a finalist, so I made sure to read it beforehand, knowing I wouldn’t have time after the announcement). In order to vote for Best Novel of the Year, Academy members have to read all 35 finalists. I might be able to read them all this year, but that will involve . . . er . . . discipline. Translated: close my email, get off Facebook, quit checking Twitter, ignore that Google reader, and go READ A BOOK.

I have this problem. I . . . um . . . waste too much time online. When I want to relax, I open my computer. But instead of quickly checking my email and glancing at Twitter and then working on a writing project, or girls camp stuff—yes, it’s already time to work on girls camp—or something else productive, I tend to putter around on email, reading blogs, Facebook, etc. And twenty minutes pass, or thirty, or forty-five, and what have I accomplished? Almost nothing, unless you count the networking benefits of dropping in on blogs or social media sites. It’s so easy to let the minutes slip away, and if I do that multiple times a day . . . that’s a lot of slipping minutes.

I do love the Internet. It’s strange now to think back to what life was like without it. I needed a zip code for a Missouri town the other day. Went to Google, and almost instantly, I had my answer. What would I have done before the days of Google? Called the post office? Gone to the library and looked it up? I don’t know. Now, we take it for granted that information of all kinds is available immediately. And what would my life as a writer have been like, pre-Internet? Now, almost everything is done electronically. A decade and a half ago, when I wanted to send my manuscript to my sister, I put the whole giant stack of papers in a binder, packed it in a box, and mailed it to her. Sounds really old-fashioned now, doesn’t it? Sort of Pony Express-like.

Along with the ease of sending manuscripts around electronically, the Internet allows me to interact with other authors and readers in a way I never would have been able to do otherwise. Since I live away from the center of LDS publishing, without online communication, I would have had very little opportunity to interact with my colleagues and get to know them. The online connections I’ve made with other authors and my ability to participate in the writing community long-distance have been huge blessings in my life.

The Internet is also the main way I communicate with my siblings and parents and with my college daughter. My daughter pops up on Gmail chat and I find out what's going on in her life--like the fact that she was down to bread and Pasta Roni yesterday, poor child. But any good thing can become a not-so-good thing if not used wisely, and I fear I've not been using my online time as wisely as I should. So now I'm setting the goal to not let so much time slip away into cyberspace--and maybe I'll be able to finish reading all 21 remaining finalists. How about you? How do you keep the Internet from becoming a timesink--while still reaping the benefits of cyberspace?