Around twenty times a day I find myself confronted with a screen telling me that a certain webpage is off-limits. As a webdesigner, I have to take inspiration wherever I can find it. I also rely on fixes, hacks and plugins developed by kindhearted fellows who share knowledge on their blogs.The idea that I should be restricted from visiting these sites because of a rather arbitrary computer program is absurd, it’s just like being a Soviet scientist in the Lysenko era and trying to read about Mendel. Exactly like that (I have seen several of my colleagues sent to Siberian labour camps, one of them for the severest crime of logging onto livejournal).
The idea is that if you don’t restrict people’s internet use, they will end up squandering all their work time. This is sensible, you might think, and I would agree that squandering time does no one any good. Unfortunately the internet is one enormous distraction machine and however good your filters are, stuff will always creep through.
In another life I tried to remove all the distractions from my existence. I took down all the posters on my walls, I deleted all games from my computer, I tried to ban certain sites from my browser, I disconnected the internet unless I was actively working on a site, and I planned out rigid task lists for the day ahead. Did I get more done? Did I flow?
If anything, I got less done. By hemming in my mind, by constantly focussing on NOT doing things, I inevitably started looking for distraction. And, as ever, distraction was everywhere: in pseudo-virtuous activities like wikipedia, political blogs and time management tips.
The trouble is that the unconscious doesn’t understand the negative injunction: any not or no, don’t or never is ignored by the unconscious. Conversely, the object you are trying to avoid is recognized and grows larger with each injunction. The only real way to avoid distracting is to just not think about them or think about - or become absorbed in - something else.
And as to being banned from certains sites, well, there are such things as proxies, like allowu.com behind which you can hide all activity.
There is always a way.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Leave a Reply