{"id":4581,"date":"2012-09-06T21:29:40","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T03:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4581"},"modified":"2012-09-06T21:33:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T03:33:51","slug":"the-cure-for-internet-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4581","title":{"rendered":"The Cure for Internet Addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

1940s technology might save the day.<\/p><\/div>\n

Seriously, Jonathan Frantzen wrote The Corrections <\/em>blindfolded?<\/p>\n

So this article on writers coping with Internet distraction claims. <\/a>Since most of my work requires copious reference to notes and text \u2014 and since I am a lousy touch-typist \u2014 the blindfold would not work. I understand what this guy did, however:<\/p>\n

Born in 1985, [Ned] Beauman is a digital native \u2013 he has spent the entirety of his adult life surrounded by digital technology. Yet despite being immersed in the internet from an early age, Beauman is not immune to its power to distract, and he employs a level of computing trickery that makes Zadie Smith look like a Luddite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are five layers of technological solutions I use,\u201d he explains. \u201cI edit my host file to block some websites, but that\u2019s too coarse grain. I use K9, which is a parental control application, to block certain pages within websites, and I use an ad-blocker, not to block adverts, but to block the comment sections of many sites. And when I\u2019m working I use Nanny for Google Chrome and SelfControl to block certain websites.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sites he blocks that cause so much distraction? \u201cVirtually all newspaper and magazine websites as well as blogs and Twitter. And,\u201d he says with amusing candour, \u201cI also block things relating to my career that it\u2019s probably best not to look at.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or maybe you just walk away from the computer and try something else. M. found this late 1940s portable typewriter for next to nothing and gave it to me for\u00a0 my birthday. It dates from when Smith-Corona was able to stop making M1903 rifles and other war mat\u00e9riel <\/a>and go back to its core business \u2014 typewriters.<\/p>\n

Of course, I had to ship it off to an old-school typewriter-repair shop in eastern Pennsylvania (Where did all the typewriter repairmen go? Rhetorical question.) and have it reconditioned at no small expense.<\/p>\n

Then I sat down to write a letter to a friend in England and, guess what, I could not stop to read a blog or check the weather radar for a thunderstorm. It was liberating.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking that I should go into the city, find a Starbucks, order a double cappuccino, pull out my\u00a0 Smith-Corona “Silent,” and get to work.<\/p>\n

But \u2014 like its rival the Remington “Noiseless” \u2014 it is not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seriously, Jonathan Frantzen wrote The Corrections blindfolded? So this article on writers coping with Internet distraction claims. Since most of my work requires copious reference to notes and text \u2014 and since I am a lousy touch-typist \u2014 the blindfold would not work. I understand what this guy did, however: Born in 1985, [Ned] Beauman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-4581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1bT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":0},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11887","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":1},"title":"Why Is the Hippo Goddess Holding a Bull by a Chain in the Northern Sky?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This carving comes from a Greco-Roman-era Egyptian temple in Esna,where decorated walls are being carefully cleaned and original colors seen again. As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1041,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1041","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":2},"title":"Fooling the Cyber-Censors","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I wrote a review of The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture, a collection of papers edited by Hannah Johnston and Peg Aloi, for the upcoming issue of The Pomegranate.Teen Witches, a fluid and constantly changing group, have been heavily dependent on the Internet, because they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":3},"title":"Pagan World Report","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 20, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a site collecting Pagans-in-the-news articles from all over the place. I started doing the same thing with scissors and photocopier in the pre-Internet 1970s, but it was impossible back then to have this kind of scope. My stuff went into a series of file folders labeled \"Witchcrap,\" since that's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":881,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=881","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":4},"title":"Paranoids and Podcasts","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you spent the last five years missing The X Files?The technology of Internet broadcasting is not just for Pagan music shows. If, like me, you don't stay up for Coast to Coast AM to get your occasional paranoid conspiracy fix, try some of these:\u2022 Journeys with Rebecca offers such\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=523","url_meta":{"origin":4581,"position":5},"title":"Ghost DancersFrom Savage Minds, a\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Ghost DancersFrom Savage Minds, a joint anthropology blog, some thoughts on Ghost Dancers of the 21st century. [S]such movements are never about a pure \u201creturn to the past\u201d but are, rather, an attempt to \u201crescue\u201d the past and re-deploy it to create a more satisfying present and future.The Ghost Dance\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4581"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4591,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4581\/revisions\/4591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}