World deformation activities

As children, we rarely planned our days. Most of the time, our days were planned by our caretakers, be they our parents or teachers. During the moments when we had free time, we filled it with play, laughter and joy most of the time. As we get older and begin to be loaded down by responsibilities and duties, our free time starts shrinking to the point where if we had any free time, it'd be spent doing something "useful". Oh, I'm not saying that us grown-ups don't have any fun but that fun takes a secondary or even tertiary prioritization to the Things We Have To Do Or Civilization Crumbles (tm).

I spend a lot of my time surfing. Sometimes, it's purpose-driven (read: not an utter waste of time) but oftentimes it's random surfing. A thought occurred to me this morning: if there were no Internet, what would I be doing? Simple, I thought - I'd be reading a book. However, I know that there are times when I don't want to be reading so what would I be doing then? Probably something else, something tangible that will have some impression on the real world that shows that I've Been There and Done That.

Instead, I spend my time shuffling electrons from one place to another.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that surfing (a.k.a. self-directed impulse-based educational activity) has some value. However, for a knowledge worker like myself, I'm not really leaving much of an impact on this world we live in. If I shuffled off the mortal coil right now, what will I really be leaving behind? Not a lot, I can tell you that.

So, I resolve to do more things in this real, tangible world of ours. Exactly what, I'm not sure quite yet but I think I'll pollute brighten my family's day with some bleating music from my chanter.