Test of Discipline

What do people do to avoid work? This is an easy question for many of us who live in a technological advanced and information-saturated time. Facebook, youtube, MySpace, AIM, MSN, and the like can easily entertain us for hours where we find escape from our tedious yet obligated work. However, the irony of it all is that even though we have all the knowledge and information readily available within the grasp of our fingers, we aren't reaching out to them. We are not necessarily learning more or becoming smarter than those who came before us who did not have these conveniences. This prompts us, the Y2K generation, to examine our relationship with computers and ask if the modern convenience plays any role in improving or hindering the quality of our learning, either by making knowledge more accessible or if it deters it by creating unnecessary distractions?

Personally, having a laptop and the Internet provide reasons enough for me to spend times away from my actual work and learning. Therefore, I challenge myself to spend my time wholly on the books and away from the computer and Facebook. This is a true test of personal discipline and I am determined to give it a try.

Here is the test,

No Facebook or Wheaton Webmail for a month starting from today, 10/20/08

Instead,

I am only allowed to check my LSE email and online search and keep up with the current events.

Please email me for any urgent matter at x.l.wang@lse.ac.uk

This is going to be hard, considering how much I dread and appreciate my readings that covers a range of subjects from philosophy to history, economics to the environment. Regardless of interesting subjects, I can't help it when my attention span moves way down to the negative quadrant on the X and Y axises and does not shown any sign of recovering any time soon. I know this is a necessary step if I am going to survive my year and truly live life to the fullest by having enough time for both learning and fun.