Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Where does the time go?

I mean really, where does time go as you get older? I seem to remember great swathes of free time — bored time — when I was youthful: long gaping holes in the day that were impossible to fill up. Time to lie around musing. Now, no sooner have I finished one task than the next looms large, demanding attention, strumming its fingers with impatience. Work, leisure, being a parent: they're all overwhelming in their appetites for time. Books lie unread, films come and go at the cinema unseen, desultory thoughts go unthought. Is the internet the time-aspirating culprit?

10 comments:

Our Juicy Life said...

yes, the internet sucks the life out of you. We went without for the last 3 weeks, while we moved here and tried to get our EDF bill to show we existed. It was actually nice not having it. But it's nice having it again too. It just seems that the day does go by so fast, I try and stop and notice small things during the day instead of just letting it slip by.

auntiegwen said...

It is for me

Lesley said...

@NVJ: I think they have some system in Iceland that involves no TV one day each week. I think that might work for the internet too.

@auntiegwen: I'll be wanting it back then.

Jordan said...

I blame Facebook and Twitter! (And maybe the rest of the Internet...but mostly those two.)

Lesley said...

@Jordan I think you're absolutely right. It's certainly not blogging.

materfamilias said...

Funny, I keep resolving to go a day or two without, just to own some time, but never quite maintain the resolve long enough.
Really like your new template . . . the effect of tacking notices up on a wooden fence is great.

BeefKing said...

the time disappears into the shiny color screen, and it never comes back out.

deborah said...

Sedentary habits always feel like time-wasters, I remember my father getting annoyed seeing us sitting around reading at weekends when we should have been outside sweeping up dead leaves or picking fruit.

I can sit for hours (and hours) reading on-line papers, blogs, wikiwhatsit and other agreeable trash but all the while feeling guilty that I should be out on my bike or doing something 'constructive' i.e. something which involves movement! So yes, the internet is another culprit.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't addictive ... ay, there's the rub.

(Forget the Bard, I sound like Mary Bennet this morning)!

Dick said...

Weirdly, retirement alongside having young kids stretches it out again. Not like it used to be when it was fresh and ours alone, but just about enough.

Lucy said...

But I also find there are internet things I should do and don't get round to, like e-mails, and even reading the blogs I want to. I don't even do Facebook and Twitter, but still get distracted wandering off on links and reading articles about things I didn't know I cared about and probably don't.

Then sometimes I sit and read a book then feel guilty that I'm not up on current issues which I'd surely know more about if I read up more on the internet...

But I think it's good to have more things lined up than you can really do, it shows an appetite for life.

Confinement

Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...