I love my iPad dearly. I love my Kindle too but I have the older version of Kindle (you know, with the old keyboard at the bottom) and I spend half my time with fingers on the screen trying to enlarge the page to make the font larger (forgetting the font option), so I tend to fall back on the iPad.
Weak I know.
Weak I know.
Here's the big trouble.
There are so many places to go! Distractions! Entertainment! Movies! Facebook! Twitter! Pinterest! Word Chums! Apps upon apps to read: the news, magazines or book sites, blogs, Goodreads, a few music places and I am done. DONE. (I even have Optimum on there, yes I can sit on my front porch and watch the local news at five.)
Is this really a good thing?
The other night our WiFi went out. The H, who is content anywhere doing anything or nothing at all but sipping from a cup of coffee was fine. "I will read my book," he announced. I got a book out too, a real book.
The quiet was incredibly LOUD. It confirmed that the Internet is rotting out our brains, I felt a bit off at first, kind of scared. Eventually, I settled in and read for a couple of hours. I felt like I was missing out but on the other hand, I was perfectly linked in to what matters. Being real. living in the real world, disconnected from devices and people, connected to my book and my spouse. I read more in that one sitting that I have read in a long time. Lo and behold, my brain's attention span headquarters stayed on top of things and my mind never wandered off.
Though I would probably commit some kind of malfeasance if you took my iPad away, plus, I could hug the Apple people stupid for my iPad and iPhone, both truly necessary in my life, but I need the real world space and LOUD quiet to center me so I can dig deeper into what I am reading.
Concentration is a beautiful thing.
There's a time and place for both types of life, that's for sure, I love my reader, my Kindle, my books, and I surely love quiet and my husband, my family. It's all good, it all requires balance and discipline, not just for when my WiFi goes out.
* I realize I can read my iPad reader offline, and the Kindle I can read all the time. But somehow. When the WiFi is out I have an attitude first then the whole, "I am going to rough this, dammit" sulk fest for five minutes which is exactly what makes this work. Push it all aside and pick up a read book. Sit next to your spouse or kids or the dog or cat (or fish, whatever) and "rough it." It really does feel good.
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