It's Saturday evening, but for all I know it could be Wednesday. I'm sitting at the library trying to work on an exegesis paper of Ezekiel 34, but I'm finding myself entirely distracted. I have been looking at all sorts of random web-sites inbetween my meager attempts to structure this paper, and the question occurred to me of what in the world people did in the library here at Princeton 100 years ago, or even 40, 30, etc. years ago when there was no wireless as an immediate source of distracting gratification? Did students actually sit still for 5 hours straight and focus on their paper, or on memorizing facts for their finals? That seems so unfathomable to me, but it also makes me realize that I am a typical addict to the age of technological distractions. Here I am--probably haven't spent a total of 60 solid minutes working on my paper, but I've sure found plenty of interesting blogs and craigslist patio furniture and modern architectural homes. I can't get myself to focus for more than twenty minutes straight without wanting to change mental topics...I think this is a great tragedy of our era. Hmmm....what is the solution for this schizophrenic generation? I guess less tv, more time reading, more time engaging in good discussion with friends rather than movie times, and putting strict mental limits on how much net surfing I can do. Yeah, mom: I'm glad you didn't let me get a Nintendo when I was young, and when Grandma Jean finally bought one you rarely let us use it. I don't think my kids will be getting any video game consul either...they'll need all the help they can get in learning to concentrate.
Granted, I got four hours of sleep last night...stayed up until 2:30 studying for a final, got up at 6:30am to keep studying, left the house at 8:45 to get to the test by 9:00am, and wrote essays for 3 solid hours. So my mind's a little shot...but I've still got two papers and a Greek test to gear up for. And perhaps if I didn't let myself get distracted so easily I wouldn't be cramming quite so badly here at the end.
Well, maybe I should put my money where my mouth is at get off the Internet! Here starts my new attempt to focus for more prolonged periods of time without changing mental subjects. Anybody else struggle with this problem?
1 comment:
i was giggling the entire way through that monologue..you're almost done!
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