I had just about reached my limit. That moment when I realized I had wasted enough of my time \u2014\u00a0my life! \u2014\u00a0staring at the computer screen while clicking on an endless supply of political ramblings, soccer recaps and advice columns about getting really rich while only raising two fingers. \u201cGo do something productive!\u201d I commanded myself. And I was just about to \u2026 when I saw the story headlined, \u201cLuke Skywalker learned Jedi secrets while watching Youtube.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, I\u2019ve got to click on that! <\/p>\n
It was then that I realized I had a problem. That my whole family has a problem. Like millions of Americans, we\u2019re hooked on screens. They\u2019re everywhere in the house, and worse, we\u2019re bound to them like umbilical chords. Unable to function, think or cope without them. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow are you feeling today?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHmm. I don\u2019t know. Let me Google it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is why I think we need to break away. Free ourselves from the screens. So I have come up with a 5-step family cleanse to help us do it. We will shatter our reliance on the almighty screen and here\u2019s how:
\n<\/p>\n
1.\tRecognize that screens are not a portal into great knowledge and infinite wisdom. Or an escape from the hum-drum world that envelopes us. Or a way to connect with people who think and feel just like we do. No, no, no. This is just a myth. Remember: screens are REALLY there so foreign hackers can steal our passwords and get us to turn over retirement savings by convincing us they are the crown princes of Banoonenzuala and need a mere $35,000 for bus fare before drowning us in untold riches. <\/p>\n
2.\tRemind yourself that for every cat video you watch, 275 poor, starving brain cells die. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s a documented fact, but I bet it\u2019s true. And since the average person only has around 100 billion brain cells \u2014\u00a0I know this because I Googled it \u2014\u00a0we could pretty much knock out the whole stock in around 20 minutes. <\/p>\n
3.\tPick up a book. Stare at it. Concentrate on it. Notice the shape. It\u2019s rectangular, isn\u2019t it? Just like a screen. Now take a deep breath and imagine you\u2019re watching cat videos on it. Better, isn\u2019t it? Yes, books are good. <\/p>\n
4.\tPonder this: When you are looking for wonderful and exciting ideas, experiences and places on your computer, are you completely missing the wonderful and exciting world that surrounds you? Ask yourself, \u201cIs this ironic?\u201d Realize you have no idea what \u201cironic\u201d means \u2014\u00a0you thought it was a health issue when you ate too much steak \u2014\u00a0and go look it up on your computer. (Give yourself an extra 10 minutes to read that Luke Skywalker story. It was REALLY interesting!)<\/p>\n
5.\tI can\u2019t honestly remember what 5 was. I got hung up on a fascinating article about a pig who saved a farmer thousands of dollars by writing off slop as a tax deduction. Also worth reading! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had just about reached my limit. That moment when I realized I had wasted enough of my time \u2014\u00a0my life! \u2014\u00a0staring at the computer screen while clicking on an endless supply of political ramblings, soccer recaps and advice columns about getting really rich while only raising two fingers. \u201cGo do something productive!\u201d I commanded myself. And I was just about to \u2026 when I saw the story headlined, \u201cLuke Skywalker learned Jedi secrets while watching Youtube.\u201d Oh, I\u2019ve got to click on that! It was then that I realized I had a problem. That my whole family has a problem. Like millions of Americans, we\u2019re hooked on screens. They\u2019re everywhere in the house, and worse, we\u2019re bound to them like umbilical chords. Unable to function, think or cope without them. \u201cHow are you feeling today?\u201d \u201cHmm. I don\u2019t know. Let me Google it.\u201d Which is why I think we need to break away. Free ourselves from the screens. So I have come up with a 5-step family cleanse to help us do it. We will shatter our reliance on the almighty screen and here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,561,559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-nutshells","category-family","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1553,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}