This is directed primarily at my OS friends on my friends list, but it might be instructive to others who may have fallen into the same self built trap that I have.
Hello, my dear OS friends.
OS is, an has been, a wonderful therapy for me since I found it, especially given my current medical problems. It keeps my brain active and motivated; and it keeps it off of me.
Plus the warm friendships I have developed here have been so supportive, genuine and honest, much more than I thought possible on the internet. I so do love the community aspect of OS and try to contribute to it and build it up in many ways, including the Must Read Posts lists each week.
OS for me is addictive. And I have an addictive personality. This means that a lot of the life that I could be having outside of OS, even given my medical problems, has all but dried up. I can't get too far from my LazyBoy but there are a lot of things besides OS that can be done from this chair.
When Sue comes home I am on OS, but often also when she is here for the few hours we have together before she goes to bed. Then after she goes to bed it is more OS, until 2 or 3 in the morning. I get up about 10 or 11 AM and start back on it about noon every day and it repeats itself.
I am normally a voracious reader of novels and biographies. I haven't opened a book this winter.
I subscribe to Newsweek and three motorcycling magazines all of which are piling up unread.
I used to read in some detail every day on the internet the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Huffington Post, along with some Politico, the Nation and Salon. Now I hardly look at them.
I like to watch the MSNBC talking heads even though they often irritate the hell out of me. But they are better than the others. Now they provide a bit of background that I hear now and then, and ocassionally look at over the top of the laptop screen.
I like to actually listen to music, not just have it on as background noise.
I love to watch basketball and the Cavs are now a great team. I turn them on and mostly ignore them because I am reading or writing on OS. If it gets loud I will look up and see a replay. That is hardly enjoying a game.
The biggest part of the time consumption on OS is something that I have done to myself, well, actually I have done it all to myself but this one is pretty obvious.
I have insisted to myself that I go out to every friends blog at least two or three times a week, sometimes more, and read whatever new they have written.
And when I read a post I always comment on it. I think it is important to the writer to know that someone read it who took the time to write a simple thank you. And I will never change that.
But what I am going to change to start to get a bit of the rest of my life back, is to not go out to every friends blog several times a week.
I will rely partly on the damned too short feed on the right side of my blog pages to catch new friends posts. A lot of time that won't work because a post can be there for only a few minutes before it is bumped.
I will rely more importantly on friends sending me notices of their new posts. I do not call it "blog whoring" and I think that word should be trashed and never used again.
All of my friends are mutual friends. They have agreed to receive notices and I and have asked every one of them to notify me. Many do, many don't. But I will no longer go searching for what they are writing. I wish that were not so, but the reality is that I can't get more balance in my life if I am obsessing about "having to" go search out the new posts of my friends.
If that doesn't provide enough balance then I will take a close look at the Must Read list. I play the effort it takes to do it down but the truth is it takes a lot of time to find the posts, write the reviews of the posts and just physically get all the links into the post and then reply to the comments.
My problem with the List is not just the time consumption. It is whether it is doing much good for the effort expended. I have tested that on Vol. 4 and Vol. 5 the only way I can, and I found that there are very few new comments on those posts after I post the list.
The problem is that comments don't tell me much because I know that there are many more page hits than either comments or ratings. I wish those posts had a hit counter so I could see how many more hits they got after the List is posted. But it is not obvious to me that the List is accomplishing the intention of increasing readership for the posts and the writer.
So, bottom line, I love OS and I care very much for the friendships I have developed here. And I hope to keep them and gain new friends as I go along. I am not leaving. I am not unhappy. The problem is me, not OS. But I must cut back. Sue hasn't asked me to, but I know it is what I need to do. I hope that you all understand that.
I am pretty sure than a number of you do, who have told me in PMs that you just can't keep up, or that OS is eating into time that you should be using for other things.
I would be glad to get anyone's comments on what you think about the addictive nature of OS and how you handle it. I would imagine that those of you who do not have addictive personalities don't have a clue what I am talking about. All I can say to you is that you are very lucky, and I envy you. ;-)
Monte
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